Sarah Elson

Elson, Sarah prior to allelopathy (detail) spider gum chain mail. 2021, recycled copper sml

In Residence on the verandahs at Donnelly River Village

13-20 June 2023

Sarah Elson is a Western Australian artist who has pursued an interest in traditional metalsmithing and its use in contemporary visual arts practice for 25 years.

Her work examines the nature of preciousness and the preciousness of nature. Transience, ephemerality, sensuality and reciprocity are key words in Sarah’s practice – so too an understanding of community, relationships and the entanglement of life. The act of making for Sarah is a meditation on growth; realized through the fluid potential of a medium often perceived as static. The sensuality in her work, of material and subject matter, draws out a philosophical attitude to being.

In 2001 Sarah was the recipient of a Samstag Scholarship and holds an MFA from the Chelsea School of Art and Design, London. Sarah has exhibited nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions Anigozanthos (eudaimonia hybrid) at Galerie Düsseldorf in 2007 and phloem poetica at PICA in 2010.

Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, John Curtin Gallery, Edith Cowan University and the Janet Holmes à Court Collection. She is a member of Art Collective WA, Perth.

Lament of the labellum – cusp, 2016 – 2019, Sarah Elson, recycled silver 730 x 210 x 80 mm LR sml

Elson, Sarah 2. Fuck Cluster Brooch – gum leaves, banksia seed pod, orchid toungues, crown of thorns flowers, salt bush leaves, 2021 sml

Images:

Sarah Elson, Weapons for a new ecology (detail), 2004 – 2018
Sarah Elson, Prior to allelopathy (detail) spider gum chain mail. 2021, recycled copper
Sarah Elson, Lament of the labellum – cusp, 2016 – 2019, recycled silver 730 x 210 x 80 mm LR
Sarah Elson, Fuck Cluster Brooch – gum leaves, banksia seed pod, orchid toungues, crown of thorns flowers, salt bush leaves, 2021

Photos: Eva Fernandez