Organising Chaos With Kane Lehanneur

Kane Lehanneur makes the kind of art we love that I just assumed we had already interviewed him. 

But it turns out we haven’t. And so here we are. Growing up on the Northern Beaches, Kane is a multidisciplinary in every sense of the word. Running his own creative studio, with a background in design, photography and videography it’s easy to see how his brain considers colour, composition, balance, and texture through his art. His latest body of work ‘Organised Chaos’ is simplistic yet layered. Subdued yet vibrant. We want every piece. We caught up with Kane ahead of his show tomorrow evening at the Northern Beaches’ beloved Hake House, where we will definitely be in attendance. Read this, then see you there.

Kane! How are you? What are you up to? 

Just had a little coffee with a friend, catch up.

Cool.

Bit maniac at the moment but that’s pretty standard just before a show. How are you? 

Yeah kind of the same really, just had three coffees, manic trying to get shit done. Are you keen for tomorrow or just stressed? 

Nah I’m definitely keen. It’s always a strange time when you’ve handed everything in and you see everything in the space. I’m just working on the video and sound piece that goes along with the show. So it’s not all wrapped just yet but the direction is well on its way.

What do you mean by sound piece - you’re recording new music? 

No it’s not a song by any means. I just linked up with a couple of my friends who are sound designers and briefed them on an idea and then we did a long improvised session. Recorded a bit in the studio as well as out in nature. It’s all been curated to go with the art and we’ll try and do a live set in the gallery on the closing night. 

So there’s a few things going on with this show? 

Yeah it’s definitely multi-medium. I’ve done sound pieces for every show that I’ve done. Some of them have been remixes of albums. This one has been the one that I’ve had the most time for and also the more in depth and conceptual, built from the ground up.  

What started your interest in bringing sound into your shows? 

I think sound and music is something that is super inspirational and something I am super involved in in many ways. I’ve always liked creating things that are multi-layered experiences. I find bringing in other elements is really important when I’m doing shows. I feel like it helps viewers to understand the parts that go into the work other than it just being a visual thing. I also feel like sound changes your state - it comes in through your ears and takes over your body, taking over your senses. I just think it’s a great tool to influence the emotional state of the audience when viewing your art.

The flowers prominent within your works represent love and loss - can you elaborate on that a bit more? 

The flower in different cultures and religions mean so many different things but at the core of it - usually for condolences or celebration, the essence is about bringing community together. All the flowers being linked together represents that flow, community and being there for one another. Within my work, the title of this show was originally organisms but taking that idea of community into an ecosystem and how we relate to that. Turning that light on a little more. 

You grew up in the Northern Beaches too right?

Yeah.

Do you think living on the coast has influenced your style? 

I actually want to say no. In some ways I relate to the nature here, yes but I don’t think I relate to the culture of where I live so much. I get that a lot more from traveling around the world. It’s from exploring different cultures from around the world that have developed that idea of the flower and trying to communicate something for greater existence than just my immediate surroundings. I don’t think my art necessarily relates back to where I live. 

I understand that. 

Yeah and I think because I’m half French. 

No way. I love France - I want to move there so bad. Where are you from? 

I have family everywhere really. So I’ve spent a lot of time in France and Europe. The art scenes over there and around Europe is really inspirational. 

Oh it’s insane. Wow, so cool. When did you realise you could make a real go out of this artist thing? 

It has always been a thing that it was really difficult to make it as an artist. So I have a creative agency that I built to get to a place where I could support myself, after that was in a good spot I started to paint. I mean I was always painting, but my girlfriend at the time was like ‘hey you should really take this seriously.’ That would have been maybe 2018. I actually did a painting for her one time for her birthday and she was like you gotta do this, and that’s when I started to do it properly and then did a show. Then slowly the art took over the commercial. A smooth but slow process. But it’s one of those things - when you’re doing creative work commercially you’re always practicing in some way or another. 

And just on that commercial work and your art - I can relate to this in a writing sense where there’s writing I do for myself, interviews I definitely want to do but then also the commercial writing work I have to do - how do you handle the balance with your commercial art now that the art that you’re doing for yourself is essentially now what you’re getting paid for? 

I do try to keep them very separate. It’s hard because you’re getting your name in two different spaces and people definitely buy or hire you because of one or the other, but in saying that art has always been a place where it’s not about the money for me. That’s why I wanted to set myself up financially with the commercial work because my art is so conceptually based and I want to be in a place doing it for me whenever I do it. I can just do it because it means something to me without the financial pressure. I think all great artists have a sense of authenticity which is not governed by external sources of if it's going to sell or what society or the market wants. 

That’s some damn good advice. What do you do outside of art and work that keeps you in a good headspace? 

Lots of time in the ocean. Lots of exercise. Mindfulness I guess. Ummm I don’t know - I’ve been in the studio for seven weeks. It's hard to think. 

No, no I think those are good answers. Ocean, exercise and mindfulness, I don’t think you need to elaborate. What was on the playlist with this body of work? 

World music mostly, lots of Arabic/Eastern Europe influence. Anything on Habibi funk label, Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek, Sababa 5 and more. Lots of Latin/Brazilian including Bala Desejo, Gilberto Gil, Rogé to name a few. Italo stuff like Nu Genea, Par Bleu, Pellegrino. Then other than that lots of jazz/free jazz/electronic stuff. To highlight some of the Australian scene; Foshe, Godtet, Sinj Clarke, zeitgeist freedom energy exchange, horatio Luna, surprise chef plus plenty more weird experimental stuff (laughs). Could keep going but I won’t bore you.

Would you say you’re an organised or chaotic person? 

Good question. Is this a trick question? 

No, not at all. 

I would say methodical. I think if you stepped into my studio you’d be like woah there’s a bit on here but everything has a purpose and there’s a process to how it all works but yeah in art - chaotic. In life - organised. 

Alrighty. My last question. How do you think art helps the world? 

Challenging society and our thought processes. Leaving people with a different outlook when they experience art. I really try to hone in on that. Nowadays I think there’s a lot of just visual stuff but traditionally art is supposed to challenge. That is really important in my work and it should be important in everybody else’s too. Have something that you’re trying to say.

Find out more about Kane’s show here.