Inside artist Lindy Lee's game of chance in Canberra Museum and Gallery exhibition Moon in a Dew Drop

And according to the co-curator of the Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop exhibition, which opens at Canberra Museum and Gallery on Saturday, that's a beautiful way of putting it. Particularly when talking about works such as Buddhas and Matriarchs, a 2020 installation artwork created using flung bronze.

It's also a work that demonstrates that the creation process can be just as captivating as the work itself.

"Lindy gets all armoured up in this incredible suit because melted bronze is incredibly hot and incredibly dangerous. And what she does is works with a team at a foundry in Brisbane, and she will take the melted bronze in this amazing ladle," Robson says.

"And we have an example of the ladle in the show. She then pours the bronze, and it will form different patterns depending on what the temperature is at the time, what the kind of bronze is like, and how fast it's cooling, and it will form into these really amazing organic patterns.

"Then she'll bring those different objects together to create these beautiful installation works."

It's almost an artistic game of chance. The control over the final product comes after external elements have had their way with the melted bronze.

It really goes against this idea a lot of people have - that the artist is in total control of the work's creation and overall vision from the start.

In Lee's process, there is a chance that things don't go your way. And arguably that is the point.

According to Robson, Lee almost sees the natural elements as co-collaborators.

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"We have some very beautiful paper works which are made in collaboration with the rain," Robson says.

"She will pour ink onto paper and then she will leave it out in the elements often when it's about to rain and the rain will then push the ink and play with it on the paper and form these amazing patterns.

"And Lindy talks about this process of working with the rain as being a collaborative process and never knowing what's going to happen but the rain is this amazing artist. And so it's this process in many ways of just letting go of seeing what will happen."

Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop is the largest survey exhibition of the artist's works to date, covering 40 years of her career. (Not to mention, it's a career that has seen the artist create the most expensive work ever commissioned in the National Gallery of Australia's history).

The result of a close collaboration between the artist and curators - Robson and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor - the exhibition features key artworks from the 1980s to the present, including several new works created specifically for the exhibition tour.

Using an array of processes which include flinging molten bronze, burning paper and allowing the rain to transform surfaces, Lee draws on her Australian and Chinese heritage to develop works that engage with the history of art, cultural authenticity, personal identity and the cosmos.

"The interesting thing about Lindy's works is how diverse she is as an artist, and how radically her practice has changed over the four decades," Robson says.

"Some artists explore an idea continuously, and are very inspired by particular ways of painting, for example, where Lindy's practice has changed phenomenally."

Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop is at Canberra Museum and Gallery until December 3.

On September 29 at 1pm, there will also be an artist talk. To book go to cmag.com.au.

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