Looking for a heart of gold

Thursday 14 February 2019

For the past 10 years, Lizi Summer has been looking for love in the most unusual places: bread, yoghurt, leaves, clouds, worm casts, soap suds and even cow poo.

The local artist has never shied away from putting out her sculptures – steel, copper or steamed oak pieces full of curves and movement, inspired by the natural world - but until now, she has kept one of her biggest projects hidden from the world.

Lizi has collected over 2,000 photographs of hearts and while some of them might look like they have been photoshopped, Lizi says none of them has been doctored or manipulated. “Sometimes I look for them, sometimes they appear to me, but I never try and make it happen. Every time I try and alter it, it never works!”

Pictured: Lizi finds love in the most unusual places, including cow poo.

‘The Heart Project,’ as Lizi has since named her collection, started with a heart found at the bottom of a cocoa mug. “I had just lost a baby girl, who would have been named Summer. I came back from the hospital and I was thinking about her, and wishing her well and I saw this perfect heart in my mug.” 

Many more hearts have followed since then. “I just keep seeing them. It’s a bit of an obsession. It’s a connection with my daughter, like a message from the universe,” Lizi explains. She highly recommends others take up a similar quest. “It’s like looking for a treasure, I’m looking for the heart of gold! It’s a fun thing to do!”  

Pictured: "It’s like looking for a treasure, I’m looking for the heart of gold!," Lizi says.

Yet, Lizi has mostly kept quiet about her project apart from a large installation featuring prints of her many hearts. “I didn’t want to talk about it, I kept telling myself that people would think it was naïve and kitschy and not what a ‘serious sculptor’ would do.”

But a visit to Camp Veria, a refugee camp in Greece with Ian Rolls, Maria Tarrant and Aurélie Boas convinced her to reveal the ‘Heart Project’ to the world. Refugees gave the four artists artwork to bring back to Jersey, which was presented in the ‘Made with Love’ exhibition, along with the response of local artists.

“One common symbol that was used by the refugees was the heart,” says Lizi.

Pictured: Lizi encourages others to look for hearts wherever they go.

In a bid to show everyone that love actually is all around, Lizi now wants to “bring the world together in a project where people from around the world would send photos of the hearts they see.” 

“We are all connected, we are all made of stardust,” she adds. “It would be quite a playful thing and people could have fun with it. It would help everyone reach their inner child.”

In the meantime, Lizi is still sculpting. She recently visited the IceHotel in Sweden where she crafted a heart, perhaps unsurprisingly, out of a block of ice. “Ice sculpting is a newly learned skill,” she explained.

Pictured: Lizi recently learned how to ice sculpt.

This month, Lizi is part of the Arts Centre's 36th anniversary exhibition, 'The Dance' which celebrate movement and the rhythm of dance. Next month, she will be part of the all-female exhibition ‘Being Human,' organised by local artists Gabriella Street and Amy CD.

“I have been creating things all my life. I was always in the garden as a toddler getting dirty. I find it hard to stay still. Even on a plane, I am still crafting shapes.” 

This article first appeared in Connect, read the February issue here.