Lynn, Vivian. Educated Wellington Girls' College; Canterbury University College School of Art 1949-51 DFA; Auckland Teachers' College 1952 Dip Tchg. Postgraduate study and fact-finding study Honolulu Academy of Arts; Pratt Graphic Centre New York City; Tamarind Institute Albuquerque USA; Land art projects including Christo's Rifle Gap Valley Curtain, Colorado, USA, August 10th, 1972.
Awarded QE11 Arts Council grants, studio practice, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983; Advisory Committee on Women's Affairs grant 1983 and Trustees of the National Library grant 1984 to facilitate the Women’s Art Archive, slide image and taped interview archive; Wellington Polytechnic School of Design Research grant to international experimental studios Bauhaus, Dessau, and related studies Berlin and Potsdam, Germany 1992-93.
Until 1996 she was a lecturer in drawing and design, Schools of Architecture and Design, Victoria University / Wellington Polytechnic. Travelled widely conducting research and professional practise in Europe, USA, Egypt and the Pacific. Research included feminist and, post-modern culture and theory.
Vivian Lynn began her career as a painter but by 1968 abandoned oil paint on canvas to embark on series of works using diverse materials and technologies. By 1973 she had developed the conceptual practice she is known for which incorporated hair and industrial materials.
For many years Lynn used the morphology of the human body in her work by juxtaposing its charged sites of hair, skin and brain with correspondences in architecture such as steps, gates, doors, columns, factory, cathedral and house. She says, "Our bodies are mediated by cultural codes, my interest is in dislocating and transgressing these codes in ways that makes them tangible."
Art New Zealand
Art New Zealand - Guarden Gates
Art School 125 - Interview