Having swapped the diesel and grit of the asphalted inner west for Lismore acres some years ago, renowned creative legend Chris Lego might no longer live in the inner west – but he still inhabits it.
Back for a one-night-only post-punk vintage brooch fire sale this Wednesday at The Bearded Tit, Lego is sanguine about the state of the creative sector both here and there. Having never stopped producing badges, brooches, cards, collages and sublimely subversive political artworks, his take on all things art is that it happens no matter the environment. And while COVID has ramped up his art production as a means of making the most out of a little extra time, it’s hardly as if he wasn’t prolific before the pandemic.
His work has a whimsical bent – toys tacked together to make other worlds, snippets of a life lived before – yet it is forged in the fires of rebellion and reaction. Curious, clever, darkly humourous, Lego captures the zeitgeist with a skill honed over many decades. When you ask him about it all, he has this to say:
“My art is about sideways glances and a belief in truth. Relentless gentle regeneration. Determination. Fucking tenacity. Random lights. Unconscious knowledge.“
Chris Lego
Queerbourhood is at The Bearded Tit this Wednesday, 7.30-10.30pm.