Beauvais Lyons Featured on Academic Minute
Beauvais Lyons, University of Tennessee – Lessons From Llhuros
The Academic Minute is a two-and-a-half minute daily module which features researchers from colleges and universities around the world, keeping listeners abreast of what’s new and exciting in the academy. The show is hosted by Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, President of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The program airs on 70 stations around the United States and Canada.
On November 1, 2022, Beauvais Lyons, Chancellor’s Professor at the University of Tennessee, School of Art, was featured on Academic Minute. He discussed how art can bring out many truths, even by using lies. Lyons’ own art involves various forms of mock-documentation, fabricating and documenting imaginary archaeology, medicine, folk art, zoological specimens, and even an invented circus. His projects often use hand-printed lithographs to convey a sense of historical authenticity. As the Director of the Hokes (pronounced “hoax”) Archives, he has originated traveling exhibitions that have been presented at over 80 galleries and museums across the United States.
In The Academic Minute Lyons talks about the beginnings of what scholar Antoinette Lafarge calls “Fictive Art,” with the creative archaelogical fiction by Norman Daly titled, “the Civilization of Llhuros,” first presented in 1972. Lyons recently coordinated the Llhuros Symposium. This symposium marked the 50th anniversary of Norman Daly’s “Civilization of Llhuros.” Over 120 artists and scholars discussed this pioneering multimedia work of archaeological fiction which had its first exhibition at Cornell University.
Lyons recently published an article through The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/50-years-ago-an-artist-convincingly-exhibited-a-fake-iron-age-civilization-with-invented-maps-music-and-artifacts-189026
Note: This image, Alte Steinenkmaler is a lithograph by Beauvais Lyons in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.