Emilie Syme-Lamont

Swan

38 × 77 cm

Oil on Linen

Unsold

Suggested offer$600

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About the work

Swan draws on the imagery of a Dutch still life, isolating the swan from its original composition and removing the surrounding objects and symbolic references. By presenting the bird alone, the work invites sustained attention to the swan itself as an enduring image and symbol. The swan has appeared throughout art, literature and mythology across cultures and historical periods, accumulating a remarkable range of meanings. Within the tradition of still life painting, it sits alongside a visual language rich with symbolism, particularly the memento mori tradition, where objects become meditations on mortality, time and transformation. Beyond this, the swan has been understood as an omen, a soothsayer and a catalyst for change—its significance shifting according to context while retaining a sense of mystery.

About the artist

Emilie Syme-Lamont (b. 1990) is a painter and multimedia artist currently based out of Naarm / Melbourne, Australia.

Borrowing genre tropes from literary Gothic and cinematic traditions, her work explores ideas of temporal overlap, (mis)remembered happenings and psychologically charged spaces. Emilie draws upon collected materials; images and debris from the mundane and physical world, reshaping them so they become infused with an odd, dreamlike quality.

Belief systems, psychology and recurring cultural phenomena all provide a catalyst for the strange narratives that become her paintings and installations.

Emilie’s practice implies a perspective that is humanistic, yet unsettling and surreal; an exploration of what it feels like to be human in one's darkest or strangest hour. Emilie Syme-Lamont graduated from The National Art School in Sydney and holds an MFA in Drawing and a BFA in Painting. She has held solo exhibitions at M Contemporary (Sydney), Edwina Corlette Gallery (Brisbane) PINCE projects (Budapest) and Incinerator Gallery (Melbourne). Her body of work includes painting, drawing, ceramics, and more recently, sound, silicone, and bookmaking. Her work is held in private collections in Australia, the USA, and Europe, and in the National Art School Archives in Sydney.

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