ART

PHOTOGRAPHY

This photo series started out as an experiment. I had no idea what to expect when I ventured out to capture people between the hours of 1am and 5am as they vacated the clubs and spilled onto the streets. I was pleased to find that a tripod and camera at that time of night sparks a lot of curiosity.

People in various states of intoxication have proven to be my favorite subjects to shoot, and the early am hours, though unpredictable, my favourite time. In order to best describe the environment and the soul of my interactions, I have adopted a shooting technique that emulates traditional double exposure. The pictures are not split second imprints of a scene. Instead they are unfolding moments meant to be discovered as elements of each narrative reveals itself.

UNSTIL OF THE NIGHT

Scrim4Rent Gallery - _Moments (September 2014)

The Royal Ontario Museum - PhotoFlash (May 2015)

Louvre - Exposure Awards (Paris - July 2015)

The Toronto Start (June 26 2015)

Vesuvio - Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival (May 2016)

Distillery District Magazine - Page 46-47 (June 2016)

TOWARDS THE NEW WATERFRONT

Placing 1st at the 2014 Toronto Urban Photography Festival, the series depicts CommUnity (the theme of the 2014 festival) by focusing on the revitalization of Toronto’s Waterfront.

Images mounted on concrete frames and placed on stands

Gallery 918 (June 2014)

DREAMS OF GLASS AND STEEL

Visions of vertical utopias spread
as dreamers reach for the sky in a race for glory,
breaking our line of vision with the dynamic dance of glass and steel.

416 gallery - Glass (October 2014)

BODIES IN MOTION

The “I” you see before you.

I am made from the ashes of the ones before me.

The ones I do not know,

the ones who’s earth I have not felt beneath my feet,

the ones who’s bread I have not tasted.

Do they see me I wonder.

Do they see their faces in mine?

Recognise my skin and hair as their own?

Sense my blood as the same blood t

hat ran through the veins of their daughters?

do they see me as another?

One who has abandoned them for the fruit of strangers.

The truth is,

I fear I am too far gone,

too much of the other to belong.

I don’t smell of scents they call home,

nor do I taste their struggles,

touch their achievements.

I exist behind a veil of differences,of disconnects.

I fear that I may be forever lost.

Left with my arteries forever severed from my heart.

So I am forging a new one,

in flames fanned with the wings of my ancestors,

from materials I gather along the way,

in hopes that

I can one day

present my present

to my past

416 gallery - Fire (2015)

From the ROOTS Zine - The Mind (June 2016)

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK

PHOTOGRAPHS OF DETROIT

Would they speak of the 20s and 30s when their halls were filled with glitter and gold? Would they speak of the events that led to their current state? Or would they speak of their current plight?

Letting their decay call to the people who have abandoned them, to the policy makers and landlords who have failed them.

Their spray painted markings speak of the people who have visited them in recent years and taken some ownership by leaving a piece of themselves behind.

#TRIGGERS

F-YOU: THE FORGIVENESS PROJECT

One of two photographers for a portrait photogarphy exhibit which highlights 19 of Toronto's leaders in spaces which triggers emotional responces to tramatic experiences in their lives.

CBC

The Richmond (August 2015)

Daniels Spectrum Gallery (November 2015)

Atelier Celadon (October 2015)

Art Gallery of Mississauga (February 2016)

Regent Park Film Festival (November 2016)

BODY AS TECHNOLOGY

ALIEN NATION-WORKSHOP VIDEO (ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AND EDDITOR)

Healing through the body, mind and spirit lies in the teachings of the Ancient ones, our ancestors. Our ancestors understood that through developing a strong connection to nature, we also build a strong connection with ourselves. However, due to hundreds of years of continual colonization, enslavement and other mass traumas, people of colour as well as those of European descent have been unable to heal generations of trauma. To spark any lasting change, the change first has to start within, for as one of the divine laws of the universe is "As within so without, as above, so below." Join Gaia in starting that journey in traveling within, and to begin realizing that as nature has knowledge to teach us, so does our own minds, bodies and spirits. The workshop will encompass a journey through the chakras, a system discovered and developed from ancient Egyptian and Indian spiritual practices, while combining movement and creative writing processes.

-Sharrae Lyon

IN LIVING COLOUR

#MIDNIGHTHOUR

“In Living Colour” is a collection that captures the streets of Toronto during the early am hours. It focuses on the interactions and exchanges that happen as people leave night clubs and stumble onto the streets. Inspired by long exposure photography techniques, I use the camera as a metaphoric paintbrush to create a dynamic narrative within one single image. The images evoke an intoxicated state of mind and the dynamic events occurring in front of my lens.

Latitude 44 (May 2017)

ART