Codes of the Bouquet

Lucienne is originally from Switzerland. She has studied and taught art, exhibited her paintings and published books in Switzerland, Canada, Australia and China. Her earlier paintings depicted landscapes of the Swiss Alps and Australian desert scenery, equally inspired by their dramatic topography. In recent years, her artworks have addressed the stereotypical representation of women, both historically and in today’s media.

Ever since her childhood in the Swiss mountains, Lucienne has enjoyed collecting flowers and making bouquets. Yet her paintings for this exhibition are near devoid of the actual representation of flowers. Instead, the delineating silhouette of the bouquet encapsulates landscape as well as figurative and abstract images that conjure up past and present momentous occasions. Such framing (of the giving and receiving of bouquets) explores compelling aspects of the human condition.

These paintings in Codes of the Bouquet  build upon Lucienne’s previous exhibition, The Bouquet Codicil, held at Gallery Ici Labas in Beijing’s 798 Art District during April-May last year. That body of work, rather than being returned to Australia, will now be shown at a museum space in a new Humanities Research Centre at Fudan University, Shanghai, during May/June this year.