Lisa Furno
Image courtesy of Helpmann Academy
Biography
Playful, energetic and eccentric in nature, Lisa Furno’s practice connects concepts of adornment and installation and invites the viewer to not just see and think, but to experience, interact and collaborate.
Colourful and flamboyant, her work is made from an array of used and scavenged plastics that questions societies longstanding relationship with over consumption and our throw away culture.
Furno graduated from Enmore Design Centre TAFE NSW, Sydney in 2006, where she completed an Advance Diploma in Jewellery and Object Design. Moving to Adelaide in 2011, she joined the renowned artist-run workshop Gray Street Workshop to work as an access tenant until 2015.
In 2014 Furno was invited to be an artist-in-residence at Manukau Faculty of Arts, Auckland, New Zealand, under the guidance of Mary Curtis and Fran Allison. The residency resulted in a major new body of work titled Made, which was presented twice in New Zealand and then once in Sydney.
In 2016 Furno completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Jewellery and Metal at the University of South Australia, under the guidance of Leslie Matthews.
Furno has participated in a number of local and international workshops. In 2019 Furno attended Soul Now an intensive workshop by Dutch contemporary jeweller, Ruudt Peter, in Ravenstein, Netherlands.
On her return to Australia Furno took part in Swiss contemporary jeweller, David Bielander’s Angst and Jewellery course at RMIT, Melbourne.
In 2020 Furno completed a 15-month residency and mentorship at Gray Street Workshop with renowned artist Catherine Truman. Which resulted in a new body of work and solo exhibition ‘Forever Playground’ exhibited in Adelaide in 2022.
In 2020 Furno became a workshop partner, joining Jess Dare, Catherine Truman and Sue Lorraine.
Furno’s exhibition practice is thoughtful, considered and inquisitive, wrapped in an aesthetic that is playful and mischievous.
Furno’s production lines are stocked in the Museum of Old and New Art (Tas), The Jam Factory (SA) and Project Space (NSW).
ARtist STATEMENT
I am a maker, jeweller and artist. My work, which is full of fun, mischief and playfulness, addresses environmental and social concerns, such as the pressing issues of over consumption and our throw-away society.
Making for me is an intuitive process, that evolves with time, thought and patience. Through making I unravel the world around me, reflect on my experiences and better understand myself.
I have always been drawn to used and pre-loved materials, collected from my own trash, op-shops, hard rubbish, flea markets and picked up off city streets. I am intrigued by their imperfections and depleted selves and captivated by the sentiment and previous life they hold.
I push and poke these found materials to see what happens. I play with the tension between my desire to control a piece and the joy of letting go, allowing the materials to determine their own path. Through juggling control and freedom, I transform these discarded plastics into contemporary works.
My recent body of work Forever Playground features an array of jewellery and a large installation of over seventy rabbit-like objects all made from weathered second-hand and deteriorated plastics from my daughter’s cubby house, pools and slides all collected from the roadside. Forever Playground continues my enquiry into our level of consumerism and questions the ethics and impact of indoctrinating young children into this consumer culture at an age when they cannot understand the impact or legacy of discarded plastics and materials on this planet.
