Lani Seligman ‘Yes, but’

Lani Seligman's large neon work fills the otherwise subdued laneway with its purple effusion...

Having previously exhibited at Gertrude Contemporary, Conical and Bus Projects, the current VCA PhD student, takes on the city space using the window to create an active piece of communication that contrasts with the dormant, sedentary surrounds.

With an artistic bang, ‘Yes, but’ is a work where scale, like a billboard: bombarding; demands attention. But unlike everyday advertising has an alternate agenda.

The affirming proposition has a sting of uncertainty in the tail which better echoes reality. Decisiveness is so rarely black and white. ‘Yes’ is just a word – an antonym to ‘no’ – and so lacking in the complexities we often want, or need to convey.

Complex, contradictory answers are the stuff of humans. As is our eagerness to please. And it is within this context that Seligman confronts our idle ‘yes’ and asks us to stay a while: in defiance.

To redefine, justify and uncover our ‘willing’ ways.