Sarah Woodward
artist
A post-disciplinary conceptual visual artist.
An immigrant, working on Gadigal Land.
Researching identity and the understand of being. Through personal work, to understand wider societal concerns.
CV
SARAH WOODWARD
education
2014-2018 Bachelor of Visual Art (First Class Honours), University of Sydney
2019 – 2024 Tafe (short courses)
Traditional Illustration Props Making
Screen Printing Website Design Arts Management
volunteering
2021-22 Articulate Process facilitation overseeing the smooth transfer to a new management style and new Board of Directors, creation of the gallery’s management manual, and assisted in the drafting of artist contracts.
2015-2018 Verge Gallery, University of Sydney Union. administering and reviewing the expressions of interest to exhibit at Verge Gallery. Provided support in the creation of the gallery’s management manual, and assisted in the drafting of artist contracts.
2015 Underbelly Arts Festival. Working with the artists installing the works on Cockatoo Island
2015 Sydney Contemporaries. Volunteer, installation and private view evening. Working with Artists, Galleries and hosting VIP’s
prizes
winner of the Verge Award,
shortlisted for Blake Prize, Macquarie Emerging Artist, Lethbridge Landscape Prize, Clyde&Co Award.
publications
Haus-a-Rest Issue 36 – The Spaces In-Between
A Moment in Time Art Book by Cista Arts
selected exhibitions
2024
Macquarie Emerging Artist
2023
in the process Stirrup Gallery Addi Road
Ladder, Glasgow gallery of photography
T’WAS SUCH A GALLANT -GALLANT SEA, Cista – a moment in time international group show
2022
Lethbridge Landscape Prize Qld
Open Studio at Inner West Creative Trails
2021
It’s All Part of the Process, Solo show, Articulate Project Space
The Other Art Fair, Sydney
Letters from a strange year, London
2020
Too bright for our infirm Delight, Solo show. Articulate Project Space
Frolic/Freeze, My Mind, Articulate Project Space.
2019
What Life is This if Full of Care We Have No Time To Stand And Stare. Solo show at Chrissie Cotter Gallery
Glassroom Project In_Situ, Continues, National Art School
2018
Blake Prize, Shadows – hold their breath, Casula Power House.
Love Letters I Do, Glaucon, 541 Art Space.
Love Letters pink ribbon, Cycle, Gaffa Gallery.
2017
Honours Graduation Show, The woman who mistook her life for a chair, Sydney College of the Arts.
Undergarments, Cycle, 107 Projects.
Resistance Art Week Performance Night Guernica/Callan Park, The Cellar Theatre.
2016
Horse (from Guernica), Factory 49.
Fabric, Gaffa Gallery.
selected collections
153 Phillip Barristers, Sydney Parramatta Light Rail Project Office.
Margret Kirby Dorottya Fabian Chris Newman
The Concepts
Ontology
the study of being. Understanding the how, what, why of of who we are. Preoccupation of philosophy, and the work here flows from Plato to Heidegger. Space/Place as metaphor, understand ourselves and others as the room in which we stand, or the house that we inhabit, and the land that nourishes us. That each moment/perspective is unique, and yet so strikingly similar.
Feminism
where women have been disempowered, dehumanised.
chairs, domestic spaces, and house facades are used as representations of the female. embodying the objectification
Language
words scare me (I love them), the sprites that convey all the mad strings of thoughts like a bead curtain tangled after a fight, I move through them and they tie me up.
(why I create simple, ethereal images)
Repeating Conceptual Images
Chairs – The chairs (amongst other items of furniture) represent the dehumanised female form. Easy to translate the language of the body, arms, legs, and back, they are comfortable and welcoming. But empty without the ‘person/man’ they exist to serve. An object, not a subject. Referencing feminist thought, including de Beauvoir, Irirgaray and Dworkin.
Corners /interiors- The line and perspective. About understanding ontology how we understand our emotional interior through the space we stand in. We see from the perspective of where we stand, the way the lines of the walls and ceilings meet at the corners. Perception is reliant on perspective.
Shadows – Similar to corners impact our perspective. Shadows show where the object is in relation to the environment. More instinctive perception, than other spatial signifiers. Ignited by strength of Australian light, in comparison to the subdues English sun. Strongly reflected Plato’s ideas.
Facades – the front of a building, how we choose to present ourselves, when it’s the home, our safe domestic space that we get through the door and hide our self inside. A superficial illusion.
Liminal spaces – the windows, the doors and the stairs. The sense of there being something (better) on the other side, inside, or up there.
Landscapes – refers to the landscape of society, with a view to the historical changes in the place, especially when there are many layers and manipulations used in the creation of the image.
Scale – A return to ideas of perception, make assumption, so many things we don’t notice. when we should. the need sometimes to pay attention to what you see, how that is different to your first perceptions. and make sure there is a full understanding between of the relationship of what you see
The Process
My process starts from an academic idea, something that’s preoccupying me at the time. Goes into in depth research.
The research creates an idea for an object, or image. It is then allowed to flows backwards and forwards between writing – researching – creating
The academic work is a complicated and confused a knot of threads and connections.
The art work is simple subtle and supple. There is time and space to unpick each element, hold it and comprehend it.
Then look again.
Sarah Woodward 