3 February 2024 – 5 May 2024
Artist Jen Valender’s SAM Selects exhibition Field presents a new body of work developed during Valender’s creative residency at the University of Melbourne’s Agricultural Campus in Dookie for the Centre of Visual Arts’ Art + Ecology program.
Inspired by sights, sounds, stories, and serendipitous encounters with residents of all species during Valender’s time in Dookie, Field features a multi-channel video installation of four moving image works (Re-search, Bovine Harp, Artist as Animal and Sediment) that combine sculpture, performance and video to explore aspects of agricultural life, and the relationship between art and the natural world.
SAM Selects is an annual opportunity for local artists, curators and creative practitioners to propose and present an exhibition in the Hugh D.T. Williamson Community Gallery at SAM. Each year, exhibition proposals can be submitted for consideration through an open EOI process.
LISTEN
SAM Talks: Jen Valender
In April 2024, SAM Selects artist Jen Valender joined SAM Curator – Community Caroline Esbenshade for a fascinating live conversation exploring the creation of her exhibition Field, where the pair discussed working with animals, performance art, and connecting with farm life.
About the Artist
Jen Valender is a multidisciplinary artist who creates performative encounters on and with the landscape that raises questions about the relationship between art and the natural world.
Through moving image, she explores the ways in which art may be used as a navigational tool to investigate human and nonhuman connections. Valender has exhibited widely in galleries and museums in Australia, France, Germany, South Africa, and Portugal and holds a Master of Fine Arts (Research) from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.