SAGA SAGA: Imagination Time Machine explores optimism and Lefebvre’s utopian vision of a time when art is valued above all else. Heidi Lefebvre’s SAGA SAGA exhibition series was born from a visit to the Caverne du Pont D’Arc in the Rhone-Alps region of France. A guide shepherded small groups through the recreated caves. The Lefebvre family held up the tour with too many questions. Lefebvre wanted to discuss her theory that the animals drawn on the cave walls would have appeared animated when viewed by flickering firelight: the guide recommended buying the book available in the gift shop at the end of the tour.

Confronted by the sensitivity of the artists who created the enigmatic imagery, Lefebvre embarked on a research rollercoaster. Parietal art, archaeology, archaeogenetics, weaponry, The Viking Sagas, The Emerald Tablet, The Egyptian Dream Book, Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, The Takenouchi Manuscripts, Cædmons Ballads, and the physics of time travel.

The SAGA SAGA exhibition series speaks of the huge history of human experience and our need to record our ideas and theories. Lefebvre is fascinated by the way fact is mixed with fiction and now, more than ever, stories slip through cultures and epochs.

SAGA SAGA: The Vision Quest (Interlude Gallery, Sydney, July 2017) was part one of the series. It concentrates on the brutal and frightening reality of humans’ destructive power and self-obsession. In this exhibition Lefebvre assembled her own cast of gods and monsters: but humans remained the omnipotent force.

Part one, SAGA SAGA: The Vision Quest, was born from darkness. Part two, SAGA SAGA: Imagination Time Machine, at ANCA Gallery is born from light. This exhibition shines bright and buoyant. It drives the darkness of the gods and monsters to rest: or at least shoves them under the bed for the time being.

Visiting the Caverne du Pont D’ Arc set a spark to the tinderbox of Lefebvre’s ideas; Imagination Time Machine brings together drawings, objects and writing that conclude that making art is the often-overlooked force that unites all people.