Lisa Tustian

Working with objects of human detritus — including handwriting and other discarded items — I explore the conditions and consequences of found‑ness. Through sculpture, audio and video works, written and spoken word, artist books, conceptual and taxonomical systems, my practice investigates how these found materials have the potential to generate narrative, affective, and relational possibilities.

The objects I use are all found by me, by chance, whilst out in the world: non‑art items spotted, retrieved, collected and then restaged in new contexts. Their singularity is central — each is irreplaceable, both lost and found, and marked by the presence of an unknown other. This unwitting collaborator, the person who once held or discarded the material, introduces a human proximity that shapes the work’s conceptual and emotional charge.

Rather than emphasising the object‑ness of found materials, my enquiry focuses on found‑ness: the moment of encounter, the shift in status, and the subtle thresholds where meaning and narrative potential begins to accrue. I investigate how this quality might be defined, articulated, activated, and shown forth through the incongruous, the poignant and the playful.

After a long career in performing arts and singing teaching, I pivoted mid-life to pursue an MFA around my longstanding art practice and then moved on to doctoral study. 

I'm a rubbish yoga-practising, dog-loving, fermentation aficionado who loves gardening, cycling in the direction of cake, and walking.