Keith Lord - Artist

Keith Lord is an Art Gallery Guide and an Artist.

Details about the exhibition

Inspired by……… an exhibition by 26 volunteers at AGSA 

(Art Gallery of South Australia)

Light Square Gallery, 39 Light Square, Adelaide 

https://www.tafesa.edu.au/adelaide-college-of-the-arts/light-square-gallery

Wed 5th August - Friday 21st August 

Monday to Friday - 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. 

Official Launch:   

Jason Smith, Director, AGSA 

Thursday 13th August, 3.00 p.m. - 5.00 p.m. 

Music is original music by David Innocente 

"One Thing Led to Another"

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to Inspired by Art and Volunteering, an exhibition with me, Tanya Ingerson. I really am enjoying interviewing these incredible people that are volunteers at the Art Gallery of South Australia and also enjoy art in all its different forms and create beautiful art. So together we're putting on an exhibition for Sala this year 2026 with a theme Inspired By. This podcast I've interviewed one of those people, Keith Lord, and Keith is look, he's he sees the world in such a unique way. I really enjoy my time chatting with Keith at the Art Gallery, and I really think that the listeners are going to really enjoy the different way that Keith thinks about things and is such a fascinating, interesting person, and I'm so grateful to know him and have an opportunity to chat with him. So sit back and relax and enjoy the chat I had with Keith. Hi Keith. Looking forward to this chat we're going to have for the Inspired By exhibition. So thank you, Keith, for doing this. What is your role as a volunteer at the Art Gallery of South Australia?

SPEAKER_01 1:33

As you know, um to take tours, I suppose, um, keep up to date with what's going on in the gallery, and I guess be part of uh really promoting the gallery. And um I I just see it as um helping to make um the visitors' time a little bit more enjoyable and informative.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

It's true, like you you do get that, don't you? It's a different experience if you're with a gallery guide than just going through by yourself, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

And often often, you know, you'll get a thank you saying, look, I I do come to galleries a lot, but this is great because um I didn't know any of this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Yeah, excellent. How long have you been a gallery guide for?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Uh since about 2018.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Were we in the same graduating? We did that year. Goodness, Keith. That was good. Wasn't it good?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yeah, I think our little cohort are especially good.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

We are especially good. It was lots of fun, wasn't it? Um, and what do you love about being a volunteer? You kind of said a little bit about what you love as far as what the public get out of it, but what do you get out of it, Keith?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Um I I suppose, I mean, uh art's been just a big part of my life, all my life, uh for as long as I can remember. And it just seemed to me to be a sort of reasonably natural thing to go from um uh being a practitioner, being a teacher, to doing the sort of stuff, I suppose. Um I also enjoy the the camaraderie amongst the guides and the amazing expertise amongst the guides. And it's terrific also to um to listen to the curators' talk and what's behind their thinking when they um put displays up. Uh, and also the opportunity to be able to just soak myself around um pictures and sculptures and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

It's a pretty good way to spend your time, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

And that actually brings me on to what is your art practice, Keith?

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Um this this is very difficult to describe. I'm I'm a person who um has, I guess, a certain fascinations for things. I have done weaving, I'll I'll I'll knit crazily and knit for months on end, and then I'll let it go. Or I'll do sculptures or I'll do printmaking. Um sometimes I just get a sort of a fixation on things and then I sort of just leave them behind in some ways, which is regretful. Um I love um 3D work, I love drawing, I love painting, um, although I don't do very much painting now. Uh I love sculpture, I particularly love ceramics. Um like I said, I've done some weavings, and uh I guess one of the one of the problems I feel about myself is um the old saying, a jack of all trades and master of none.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I don't believe that for a minute, Keith. I've seen some of your work when you showed us, and um yeah, I think I think that you actually have lots of talents in lots of areas. And what are you inspired by for this exhibition? So for the work that you're thinking about, I know we've had a little chat and you're not completely sure what you're going to put into it, but what is what's your thinking about what you're inspired by?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Well it's it's it's odd because possibly not really anything uh when you when you say inspired by I'm I'm I'm I'm just generally inspired by all sorts of weird stuff. Um and thinking about what I might do for this opportunity to show a little bit of my work, um I was struggling with the ideas of maybe doing something new or uh looking at what I've done in the past. And I'm I'm leaning towards um sort of including um something that really sort of got me going some years ago. And I've always I've always been an avid collector. I used to love collecting stamps and coins and stuff like that, although you know, never to an extent where I've got an extensive collection. I was I was a bit of a dabbler in some ways. I've always been really interested in in letters and postal, postal history even. And I love looking at the cancellation stamps and and thinking about these objects, a letter as an object. And um, when when most of my kids were at home and they were sort of um late teenagers, I was I was really struck by the amount of envelopes that would come into the house, like for all from all sorts of areas. And you know, some for myself, some for my wife, some for the kids. And I decided to become I I just became really um fascinated with the these envelopes. Um, you know, these pieces of paper that have sort of somebody at one end has done something to, and then it's travelled through some sort of system of postage system that's been in a van. That's it's it's travelled a distance and it ends up in your letterbox. And I was sort of intrigued also with the way the family would deal with it and how they would they would grab an envelope and just rip it open, and and then this piece of paper would, you know, the envelope itself would be sort of sitting on the table, uh, somehow ripped, sometimes ripped, or otherwise, it all depends on the personality. Somebody might get a knife and trim it nice and neatly and just discard it and whatever. And I started to collect them, um, and so of the hundreds of them from all sorts of different institutions that had dealings with my family, um, and I started to do images on them. And um it's sort of really the idea, the idea of art to me is really problem solving in lots of ways. You know, you you're given you're given a a format, a shape, a form, and what do you what are you gonna do with it? You know, what what are you how are you gonna present this? What what certain problems does it pose? Um, because it all comes down to um working out what what you're going to do, how things work within a shape.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Really fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

And and so um I sort of saw it as sort of small problems in lots of ways. So anyway, like like I said before, having these sort of obsessions, these periodic obsessions, I um I I ended up doing over a hundred of them.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Wow, do you know what, Keith? Um, I think I could do a really long podcast talking to you because I know we've had lots of great chats, and there is so many interesting projects and ways that you think about life, which is so fascinating. So thanks for sharing that and look forward to to what you bring together for this exhibition. I have one last question for you.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

What do you love about art?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Um, I think I see myself as um uh an artist that has not had any success in terms of not had any notoriety or um acclaim. I um I I sort of enjoy art for what it does for me. I mean, it is my absolute favorite pastime. I mean, I I've always loved sport, I still play sp uh lawn bowls, etc. I love people, I go out picnics, I love I love the countryside, I love so many things. But art is something that is it's just part of my soul, and it's how I spend many, many of my hours. Um I I enjoy the processes. I and one of the reasons I think um uh you know I'm not particularly sort of skillful or noted in any one particular area is because I like the challenge of all the different medias. Um you know, and so that that's part of it. But uh also I see art as an incredible therapeutic tool. I worked at Plainside Hospital and in the occupational therapy area, and I actually personally use art as a as a therapeutic tool there, and was interested at one stage in in studying in art therapy. So uh yeah, it it's been it's been my life and my love and and and it's my favourite pastime.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

What a wonderful way to finish this podcast. That's fantastic, Keith. Thanks so much. Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed that chat I had with Keith as much as I did. What I I have been thinking a lot about mail and envelopes and that journey that a a simple letter makes. I I I just really enjoyed talking to people like Keith that just make you think about things in a different way. And yeah, just so much fun. Can't wait to see the work that Keith puts into this exhibition, which will be held on the 5th of August to the 21st of August during the Salah Festival this year, 2026. And the opening night is Thursday, the 13th of August, 3 o'clock to 5 pm. And we're very fortunate that we're having Jason Smith, the director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, open our exhibition Inspired By. So please join me next time when I interview another artist that will be exhibiting in the Inspired By Exhibition. And until then, bye for now.