Sarah Jane Hender (born 1972, UK graduated from Surrey Institute of Art with BA (Hons) in 2000, not long after moving to London, becoming entranced by the new vibrant art cultural influences of that time. Sarah Jane became part of an art collective called Manner Projects, whist living in a disused sewing factory, curating shows that blended art and music. Alongside of this Sarah Jane created her own fashion label of wearable art - The Devils Dust, using the public platform to showcase her work in the form of art interventions. Her time spent alongside painters from the Royal Academy had a huge influence on her practice, shifting her focus directly to painting, leading to her award ship at the Florence Trust Residency and a Solo exhibition in 2011 'Thought has no Natural Boundaries' at the Corn Exchange Newbury, Greenham Arts. In which she reinvestigated the Greenham Common women’s peaceful protests and feminist movement, before undertaking a Postgraduate Diploma at Chelsea College of Art in 2012. Her embracement of motherhood and under taking the task of becoming a home educator of her son, put a huge halt in her practice, she now is currently undergoing the Turps Correspondence Course and the need and rediscovery of making work again. Her paper works are currently shown at Mana contemporary in Chicago, Project Papyrophillia and in March for A Room of Her Own online show with Irving Contemporary.
My practice is multidisciplinary, taking in painting, sculpture, DIY fashion aesthetic, video collage and drawing - often exploring drawing through a digital process, all of which utilise a wide range of materials and source imagery in order to explore contemporary themes. My work explores ideas of what it means to be a woman and meditates on motherhood, teen culture, fragility, hedonism, sexuality, creative madness, notions of power, hierarchal struggles, power of the self, self-destruction, the American dream, pop culture, female iconography and femininity. With extensive research often boarding on obsessional my work covers all aspects of the female, in the form of pageantry, glamour girls, tragic female Hollywood icons, to heroines in folk tales to name but a few, whilst entangling my own existance travelling through the various body shifts through the ageing process and what that encounters, from saddened childhood, to a sexualised teen, to hedonistic 30's to breastfeeding mother and the feeling of disappearance or an invisible transition to my 50's.
My paintings try to capture or revitalise memories rather than realistic depictions but rather a hybrid of cultural imagery. The work evolves through rhythmic emotional states, the feel of the image can take over, with the figure or face being felt emotionally in some way, almost moving through the surface of the image. These paper works utilise my Instagram feed and algorithms, infusing my obsession with images historical or current. The images undergo a set of layering, playing with colour, abstraction of form and shapes, lines upon the surface can be a balance of reveal and removal, collaging various material, like a magpie of sorts I harbour the love of material from various gatherings, from my child’s own clothing to discarded sweet wrappers. These works undergo an exciting alchemic process and thus allowing for a new image to appear, a circular transition, a mediated reimagined space in time.
My practice is multidisciplinary, taking in painting, sculpture, DIY fashion aesthetic, video collage and drawing - often exploring drawing through a digital process, all of which utilise a wide range of materials and source imagery in order to explore contemporary themes. My work explores ideas of what it means to be a woman and meditates on motherhood, teen culture, fragility, hedonism, sexuality, creative madness, notions of power, hierarchal struggles, power of the self, self-destruction, the American dream, pop culture, female iconography and femininity. With extensive research often boarding on obsessional my work covers all aspects of the female, in the form of pageantry, glamour girls, tragic female Hollywood icons, to heroines in folk tales to name but a few, whilst entangling my own existance travelling through the various body shifts through the ageing process and what that encounters, from saddened childhood, to a sexualised teen, to hedonistic 30's to breastfeeding mother and the feeling of disappearance or an invisible transition to my 50's.
My paintings try to capture or revitalise memories rather than realistic depictions but rather a hybrid of cultural imagery. The work evolves through rhythmic emotional states, the feel of the image can take over, with the figure or face being felt emotionally in some way, almost moving through the surface of the image. These paper works utilise my Instagram feed and algorithms, infusing my obsession with images historical or current. The images undergo a set of layering, playing with colour, abstraction of form and shapes, lines upon the surface can be a balance of reveal and removal, collaging various material, like a magpie of sorts I harbour the love of material from various gatherings, from my child’s own clothing to discarded sweet wrappers. These works undergo an exciting alchemic process and thus allowing for a new image to appear, a circular transition, a mediated reimagined space in time.