About Chris Dyson

Chris Dyson is a leading innovative Melbourne artist and musician. His work expresses many facets of the world - commenting on human conditions, interior states, urban and natural environments.

Chris has been playing in bands and painting since moving out of a psychodelic caravan in his parents' backyard in the early1970s. Over the last 35 years he has played in various bands including Paul Kelly and the Dots, Beats Working with Spencer P. Jones, 60s garage outfit The Fudds and art rock quartet Jon Campbell's Gloss Enamel.

Dyson's current projects are Y-Tant and Stinkfish.

Y-Tant is a collaborative performance project with percussionist Des Heffner (Birthday Party, Marching Girls, Maurice Frawley and the Working Class Ringos)involving a giant cardboard box within a giant cardboard box, stock film footage and improvised free form guitar and drums.

Stinkfish is Dyson's swampy primordial rock band, again with Heffner on Drums, bassist Graeme Lobley and son Spencer Dyson when he is in town.

The remaining time Dyson spends painting and drawing in his backyard studio, or the kitchen table (his preferred station for smaller works). He is currently working on a more minimalist Seed Series - recent works can be viewed on this site.

News - see Y-tant at the 2006 Big Day Out in Melbourne, the Lilly Pad Stage. Dyson and Heffner will be out in the box - see bizarre 1960s film footage found in a skip as it is projected onto Heffner's giant handcrafted box. From within this cardboard cell Dyson and Heffner improvise experimental free form rythmns and sound using drums and guitar, creating a stream of sensory moments rich with the potential of free association.

Chris Dyson Retrospective Exhibition of Drawings 1980 - 2006

With the generous support of an Arts Project Grant from the City of Melbourne, daughter Marita Dyson will be curating a retrospective exhibiton of drawings by Chris Dyson spanning the last 25 years. Thousands of drawings previously unseen, will be subjected to a lengthy selection process, as Marita embarks on the biggest studio audit of her life. Marita has extensive experience in soting out art - employed as an art handler for the NGV's mammoth relocation in 2003, and currently assisting in the implementation of Museum Victoria's new inventory system for collection storage (MvCIS) she has an eye for order. However, nothing can prepare her for the prolific work-on-paper-output which is the Chris Dyson Drawing Collection.

Thousands of drawings stored in various locations across town, from Yarraville to Macedon, must be sorted and assessed. The process will be documented on this website, so stay tuned for photos and possible rants from Chris and Marita, as they battle it out with charcoal dust and paper cuts for an exhibition in September 2006:
EVOLVE-RE-SOLVE.