Leonardo/OLATS - Afrique Virtuelle / Virtual Africa

LILIANE LIJN

New Yorker by birth - European by education - Londoner by choice.

Studied Archeology at the Sorbonne and History of Art at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris.

Interrupted academic pursuits to concentrate on painting - was involved with the Surrealists.

Lived in New York from 1961 to 1963, working in a plastics factory experimenting with fire and acids - did research into invisibility.

Married Greek magnetic sculptor Takis - exhibitions in New York and Paris - built a house in Greece.

Came to London in 1966 with her son Thanos - invention of kinetic clothing worked with poetry, light, movement and liquids - numerous international exhibitions established her as a leading kinetic artist - her interests in solid state and quantum physics and in Zen Buddhism inspired her to write "Crossing Map", begun in 1968 and published by Thames and Hudson Ltd in 1982 - her writings are published in numerous art and poetry journals.

By 1980 she had made her home in London with photographer and industrialist Stephen Weiss - they have two children, Mischa and Sheba - she initiated many projects, among them the transformation of Manhattan into "The Hanging Gardens of Rock City" and the Whirling Wind Tower", a wind sculpture generating electricity for a small town.

In the 1980's established herself as a leading public sculpture artist in Britain Began making "female figures" using materials and imagery from both nature and technology - gave numerous performances herself from the Songs of her book "Crossing Map" - integrated her own voice into new performing sculptures - photographed by Lord Snowdon for Issey Miyake "Collection Permanente"- latest projects are autobiographical - an artist book trilogy entitled Silvana Bismark Speaks the first volume of which is in print, a forthcoming video Listening To My Mother and a sculpture series of self-portraits.