Magic Occurs
by Jeanne Stanek
Jeanne Stanek interviewed Australian-born interdisciplinary artist, Lux Eterna via internet following the opening of The 8th Day, (Tree Studies, of pigment ink, copper leaf and mirror foil on paper), at the Quentin Bryce Gallery, Embassy of Australia, Washington, DC., March 4- August 29, 2025.
“The 8th Day is a work and ongoing collaboration that primarily acknowledges the Traditional Barkindj, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngiyampaa First People of the Willandra Lakes Region of New South Wales, Australia and celebrates their enduring connections to Country, knowledge and stories. Respects are aid to Elders and Ancestors who watch over us and guide our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters.”
Lux Eterna, March, 2025, Catalogue Statement The 8th Day, (with permission Embassy of Australia).
Lux Eterna, River Red Gum Study III, 2025, pigment ink, 24K gold leaf, mirror foil on paper
Jeanne Stanek Questions and Lux Eterna’s answers follow:
When did you know that you were an artist? When did you say it aloud to others?
Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge the well roundedness and relevant curiosity of your questions pertaining to the artist’s journey. It’s an interesting one because I think as a creative, I worked for many years artistically before I publicly announced myself as an artist. Possibly due to elements of shame, given how certain societies value artists and their work, also because of the slow burn of one’s progression from novice to emerging status, toward something more sustainable. Always balancing my work with teaching and freelance work engendered splits in my work persona, meaning I was neither fully in one arena at a time. I do recall a very specific moment in 2014 where I was standing in the emptied space of my minimal apartment and glimpsing an image of myself in a large mirror, finally feeling I was an artist and spoke it aloud.
You are so talented in different media, which is your favorite?
I think this changes over time and context. Given physical movement is the basis for all my practices, once I would’ve answered immediately, dance, dance-cinema, and performance. However, circumstances presented themselves in the last five years that coaxed me to the drafting table. Given the pandemic years and a major injury, my world shrunk and lost to me was the freedom to travel far and wide, pick up camera equipment readily and dance with others; the drawings of trees and other biomaterial became my solace and a part of my evening meditations. Now given our geo-political upheavals and being at such a critical moment in our human history, my focus has shifted to new explorations in decoloniality in community and practice.
Did your parents encourage your talents? Or did they want you to pick a more practical profession?
My parents had dreams that I was going to be a concert pianist. I was encouraged and supported in my music study. However, after thirteen years, I burned out somewhat with it and stumbled into my arts degree. They were always happy to see my creative work, especially what I made with my hands, having an appreciation for the kind of art that I could sell. I also think, because I got a teaching degree and was able to work as a teacher, it allayed any anxieties about a capricious art career. But it wasn’t until about ten years later, when the work that I was doing was becoming more recognized, and it was leading to more work and opportunities, that my parents realized the value of sustained commitment even along an unconventional path.
Did your name Lux, for light or let there be light, influence your work?
I work with lens-media, cameras, lights, so there was that synchronicity on a literal level, but more so, the metaphorical and spiritual. Lux also is the measure of light; meaning it can be an apparatus by which to measure darkness. I’ve always been deeply interested in psychoanalysis and psycho-spiritual work, whereby humans cannot progress until they learn to integrate the shadow aspects and develop judicious self-awareness or at least truthful collective dialogue to keep ourselves in check. I think a lot of contemporary society always focuses on what we can see in full light, and we celebrate the light, but it is, in fact, our darkness that makes us whole. In my more mystical work, I like to think I am exploring this area unconsciously.
Lux Eterna, Ironbark Gum Study I, 2025, pigment ink, gold leaf, mirror foil on paper.
What inspires you? What motivates you to create?
The phenomena of the human body, all life forms and existence here on earth and beyond. Curiosity about everything from our planet to the inner workings of our fractal human psyche.
The need to physically do something, to physically create, to watch something emerge from the seed of imagination to its physical manifestation. Relative to collaborating with others; the shared pre-verbal synergy, spontaneous play and weaving our immediate social fabric.
I attended your lecture at the Australian embassy. I was struck by your emphasis that art is human, and that the internet is also human. Can you please expand on your thoughts?
I feel we are living at a time, where too much emphasis, even awe, is bestowed upon technocratic dominance and looming AI. It needs reminding that every technological creation is nothing without our input and animation. We still ask the questions, which drive knowledge, information, learning; and communities of people host the forums, share troubleshooting, solve problems. Everything in our world is still created by us. All the big data that big tech is collecting, storing, aggregating, feeding back to ChatGPT is all our work. The storing of the thing, in mere data form, is not, nor will it ever be the thing. What is lost in meaning and human shared experience, is consumed by resources, space, energy.
How does your art – or art in general – influence society and cultures or how do you hope it influences society and cultures?
I feel art in its institutional sense has been hijacked by neo-liberal systems, meaning no real risks are taken and we’ve all been working within the frameworks of capitalism and market. The more pro-social and collaborative work outside the white cube, is where the real magic occurs and I feel work created across several disciplines, bridging multiple sectors, will be prime in laying foundations for future society making.
I believe you are also a teacher. Is there one lesson you would like to share with your
students?
I tell my students the following all the time: The subject by which we teach is merely the vehicle through which values are instilled. At the end of the day, teaching creative/performing arts and languages are somethings to try on, play with, grow one’s intellectual rigor and human voice. I trust that as an educator, those voices, minds and hearts grow to be speakers of truth, critical thinkers, creative collaborators, community builders etc. Every class is a deep learning and teaching space for all participants; wherein we author social contracts for better living. Each classroom, despite woeful prison like architecture, can be a microcosm for imagining new ways of being.
Who are your favorite three artists – any medium – living or dead?
Nat Randall & Anna Breckon for their work: The Second Woman.
Larissa Sansour, Hildegard Von Bingen
You strike me as a very serious person. What do you do for fun?
You’ve met me at a time where given the context of our current geo-political upheavals, civil unrest, the ushering in of a multipolar world, while an imperial hegemon kicks and screams, metering out unspeakable suffering upon our vulnerable, has really thrown that side of myself who has a sense for the ridiculous and enjoys silly yet piercingly truthful banter.
I’m a believer in the old adage, ‘the shortest distance between two people is laughter.’ (And a good dance). I have a handful of close friends who share a brilliant sense of humour; dark albeit in some ways, yet the kind of jokes when told, yield belly laughs.
But also, building cubby houses with youngest family kin, playing with my cat, fireside chats, reading for pleasure when I’m not outside hiking, fossicking along shorelines, encountering trees, rocks, fungi, desert road trips, sauna/spa and taking my mum out.
What is next for you?
I’m sitting in the fertile void at the moment; no set idea or plan other than to improve in Tai Chi and Kung Fu which I’ve recently taken up and love, and committing to and inculcating a mystic and revolutionary spiritism. Planning to enjoy the autumn months at home catching up quotidian chores, half-finished books, textile work and perhaps taking a couple of trips out to the desert to see if my next ideas are ready to emerge and explore what they are.
And finally, what are you going to do with the shark teeth you collected from the
Chesapeake Bay?
Not sure, still sitting with them, yet possibly jewelry. I read that in Pacific cultures, shark teeth have been worn by those for protection, invoking the shark’s ferocity and courage, invoking the gifts of one’s ancestors and to signify one’s transition from adulthood into warrior.