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Description:
Galerie Dusseldorf
Melbourne Art Fair 2006
Stand 13
Royal Exhibition Building
Fitzroy, Melbourne
Victoria
Australia

2 - 6 August 2006

Sarah Elson
moTH'-er 2005
Metal, recycled Silver and Copper Alloys
each piece approx. 100 x 4 x 2 cm
16 components Installed 120 x 180 cm
$ 9,000
Galerie Dusseldorf

The installation comprises a small field of what may first be read as abstracted floral forms yet on closer inspection reveals them to be elongated metal rods, ending in intricate castings of the Common Brown Moth. My interest in the cyclical transference of material directly informs the use of the casting medium, in which metal is transformed from a solid state to liquid and back again. The disintergrating carcasses of the moth (collected from the domestic realm - places like window sills where dust and insect carcasses gather) can be seen to have undertaken an alchemical change into precious metal - but the metal itself is recycled from collected jewellery.The cast 'stems' are drawn down to an optimum length to allow the forms to be triggered by the viewer's body movement as they occupy the space around them, causing the forms to tremble and sway, occasionally chiming against one another.

The cycle of growth, death and rebirth that concerns my art practice often reveals intself through a sense of yearning in the work. A longing for a deeper relationship with the Australian land as my birthplace and that of my children

Sarah Elson graduated from Curtin University of Technology in 1991 with a BA in Visual Art, majoring in Jewellery and 3D Design. In 1994, she completed a Graduate Diploma of Education and in 1999 returned to Curtin to undertake an Honours Degree in Art.
Sarah was awarded the Galerie Dusseldorf Scholarship from the graduate show at John Curtin Gallery and had her first solo show, Necromancy, at Galerie Dusseldorf in 2001. In 2000, she was the winner of the City of Perth Craft Award. In 2002, Sarah was the recipient of a Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, with which she completed a Master of Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and Design, London. Sarah has worked as a Tutor at Curtin University in the School of Art and at Central TAFE.
Sarah's work has been exhibited in the UK and throughout Australia since 1991. Some of these shows include Accomodation, Edinburgh, Scotland 2003; Metal Element 6, Quadrivium, Sydney 2003; (not) from here, House Space, London 2002; Into the Blue, Monash Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2002; Parallel Worlds, IASKA (International Arts Space, Kellerberin) 2002; Double Take, Object Gallery, Sydney, Craft Queensland and Craftwest, Perth, 2001; and, most recently, shelf life, Perth International Arts Festival, Galerie Dusseldorf, 2005.
Sarah's work is held in numerous private collections as well as the collections of John Curtin Gallery and Magda + Douglas Sheerer Collection.
Sarah is represented by Galerie Dusseldorf.