Flawed

‘There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’ Anthem: Leonard Cohen 1992.

For Chris Lloyd - 16 Dec 1944 - 22 Nov 2024

Leonard Cohen’s spiritually resonant music and lyrical explorations of the human condition have long served as a source of beauty, comfort and hope for ceramicist Julienne Lewis. While each of Cohen’s songs offers its own wisdom and insight, it is Anthem that most profoundly encapsulates the essence of his enduring legacy. In this work, Cohen reframes fear, uncertainty and imperfection not as deficiencies, but as the very origins of strength, resilience and illumination. His celebrated assertion that "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in" speaks to the transformative power of embracing human vulnerability.

This body of work, Flawed, is presented as a homage to Cohen’s profound influence. Throughout the artist’s life, his words have offered solace in heartbreak, solidarity in grief, and a deeper understanding of self, all delivered with his characteristic wit and humanity. Drawing inspiration from the themes that permeate Cohen’s oeuvre, each piece explores the vulnerabilities, contradictions and obsessions that define the human experience.

The exhibition title, Flawed, reflects both Cohen’s philosophy and the artist’s approach to making. The varying degrees of deconstruction within the works mirror the fragility and impermanence of our own lives, revealing beauty in what is broken, weathered or incomplete. Rather than concealing imperfection, these pieces celebrate it as a source of authenticity, resilience and strength. In doing so, they embody Cohen’s enduring belief that our flaws are not shortcomings to be overcome, but openings through which understanding, connection and light can enter.