Blast Wall

Lisa Traxler’s solo show Blast Wall explores the notion of “Home” and her relationship to her own distinctive home, charting her experience of living within a World War Two radar bunker on the south coast of the Isle of Wight. Living within the shadow of this monumental construction, with its clean, sharp lines in contrast to the rugged coastal weatherworn landscape has led the artist to contemplate its history and forge a deep association with the location, creating an environmental autobiography - a sense of self and place intimately connected.

This relationship with the artist and her radar bunker has grown in significance during the covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Quietened by the noise of ‘outside’ and tethered to both the physical and metaphysical home, Lisa tracked the arc of the sun within the blast wall area through photography, watching time pass in the form of light and shadow. The shapes created by light and shadow are recreated with geometric precision in her two and three-dimensional works, a response to her personal experience of this place.

Traxler is continually experimenting with the inter-disciplinary nature of contemporary art and is comfortable working in both two and three dimensions whilst exploring ways to bring the two together. Her works are concerned with her connection to her immediate landscape and often incorporate historical references. Hers is a landscape of ‘place’, an abstract concept rather than a traditional depiction. These forms are reconfigured and re-worked, their colour palette pertaining to the rugged land, bunker patina and military camouflage working in unison.