STADIA

In the opening decade of the 21st century global sporting events have usurped all other forms of mass human worship. The stadium has become a modern house of reverence, defining our media age through more than just huge television audiences. These arenas are spaces of common human aspiration where the individual, society and the brand unite to create a new type of deity. Backed by enormous corporate funding the sports stadium has the ability to transform and renew, sending people to an emotional space of release through the visual and the auditory. In many ways all the great themes of religious redemption are replayed in modern stereo Technicolor: incarnation, suffering, glorification, resurrection and ultimately in victory salvation and in defeat, death.

This body of work chronologically explores one of the greatest shows of the modern age: The Paralympic Games of London 2012. Lyon was given unique and exclusive access to all venues with his large format camera by Olympic and Paralympic Games Photo Chief, Bob Martin. Over two weeks Lyon visited every arena used for the games to painstakingly record the spaces. He carefully chose the time of each visit in order to choreograph a full spectrum of venues from full to empty, from training sessions to Gold Medal events. This exacting schedule created a truly dynamic overall vision of the event in order to record both the diversity and unity of such a huge logistical operation. The images endeavour to inspire the viewers with a deeper sense of the complete human story behind the actual games depicted, illuminating the architecture, sport, media, competitors and crowd as equal partners in a spectacle of biblical proportions.

Limited Edition Digital C-type Prints. Each work is produced as an edition of 7 with 3 Artist’s Proofs. 1494 x 1220 mm.