Helen Sanderson

Helen Sanderson - Artist, Brisbane, Australia

Biography

After teaching art in secondary schools in Queensland for many years, Helen Sanderson established her own textile business. On completion of further studies in Visual Arts at the Queensland University of Technology, has exhibited her work in Australia since 1991. Her work explores storytelling, documenting and recording history through the Australian landscape, dance, and music. She is involved with painting, printmaking, textiles and artist’s books. She has had nine solo exhibitions, three of which toured her home state of Queensland. She has been involved in many group exhibitions throughout Australia, including Paper as Object an international paper exhibition currently touring Australia. She has had experience managing the Queensland Arts Council Art Gallery, and been involved in project managing some of their touring exhibitions. Sanderson was the artist in residence for the Australian Folkloric Dance Company in 1996 and Edwards Dunlop Paper in 2001. She has participated in three collaborative exhibitions with the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the Queensland Arts Council. She is the curator for the Australian content of Lost and Found.

Curriculum Vitae - Helen Sanderson

Objective

To be actively participating in my visual arts practice through exhibitions, teaching, project management and curating opportunities.

Studies

1993-5 Brisbane Institute of Art
1989 Advanced Diploma in Visual Arts
Queensland University of Technology
1971 Graduate certificate in Secondary School Art Teaching
Kelvin Grove Teacher's College

Employment

1999-01 Workshop tutor, and exhibition judge
1997-8 Acting Gallery Director, touring project manager, Queensland Arts Council
1975 – 87 Self employed
1972-8 Secondary school Art Teaching Stanthorpe State High School,
All Hallows School Brisbane
1978 Lecturing McCaulay College, Australian Catholic University.

Professional activities

2001 Artist's Talk - Paper as Object - Noosa Regional Gallery
2000-01 Artist-in-Residence for New Possibilities in Paper Project
2000-01 Committee member -
Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society, Brisbane
1999-01 Board member for TAFTA (The Australian Forum for Textile Arts, Ltd)
1998 Selector - 2 exhibitions Warwick Regional Art Gallery
1998 Curating QAC exhibitions
1998        Project Manager Q’ld Arts Council
              Oliviero Toscani – 15 years of images for United Colors of Benetton
               exhibition touring Australia
1996 Artist’s Talk - Prospect Gallery Second Look
National Textile Biennial exhibition.
1996 Artist-in-Residence Australian Folkloric Dance Company

Publications

2001 Paper as Object - book produced to promote exhibition
2001 Eyeline magazine issue, about to be published,
article by Margaret Maynard
2001 Paper Links, in house publication for Edwards Dunlop Paper, artist in residence
2000 Textile Fibre Forum Vol 19 Issue 3 No59
2000 South West news The Music Series
1999 Stanthorpe Border Post 16.6.99 Fruit of the Vine 27.5.99
– Artist recaptures her childhood memories
1998 Craft Arts International No.42 1998 Portfolio
No 169 Helen Sanderson Branching Out
1998     Queensland Arts Council April 1998 Vol 2 No. 1
            Helen Sanderson Monoprints
            Crafts Arts International No 44 1998 Buyers Guide No.17
1998 Review Courier Mail 18.12.98 Nature exhibition at
Craft Queensland Gallery by Jeff Shaw.

Exhibitions

Individual Exhibitions

2002 Remembered and Seen … an exploration of the local landscape through memory and observation - Warwick Art Gallery, S.E. Queensland

2000-2001 Helen Sanderson: the Music Series touring regional Queensland

2000 Helen Sanderson: The Music Series collage works QPAT
fruit of the vine… landscape paintings Trevenen House Gallery, Brisbane
Dance Series monoprints QUT Theatre Foyer
1996 The Spirit of the Dance paintings, books & monoprints,
Gilchrist Galleries, Brisbane
1996 Helen Sanderson: The Folkloric Dance Series monoprints,
Queensland Performing Arts Centre

1996- 97 Helen Sanderson: The Queensland Symphony Orchestra Series
QPAC, touring Queensland

Group/selected

2001 Paper as Object Noosa Regional Gallery, part of
New Possibilities for Paper Project, touring Australia until 2003
2001 Postcards from the Island, State Library of Tasmania
2001 Secrets and Longings Port Macquarie
Hastings Regional Gallery, N.S.W.
2000 Mixed Exhibition Trevenen House Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
1999 Festivity Trevenen House Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
1998 artist’s books + multiples fair Grahame Galleries, Brisbane

1998 Turkish Delights Artrysts Gallery, Roseville, Sydney
1998 Nature Craft Queensland Gallery, Brisbane
1997 universal languages Gilchrist at the Cannery, Teneriffe Q’ld
1997 Artist’s Books Main Street Editions, Hahndorf S.A.
1997 Mind Maps Metro Arts Gallery, Brisbane
1997 The Director’s Choice Tony Gill Galleries, Montville
1996 Second Look Prospect Gallery Adelaide South Australia
National Textile Biennial.
1996 The London Artists’ Book Fair Barbican Concourse London.
1996 A Different View National Touring exhibition curated by Kim Mahood

Exhibitions in Preparation

Landscape painting solo exhibition Land Lines Warwick Regional Art Gallery 2002.
Curating the Australian end of Lost and Found a co-operative exhibition with four Hong Kong artists to be shown in Hong Kong in 2002, and furthermore organising a reciprocal exhibition with same group to come to Australia possibly in 2003.
Negotiating artist in residency with Dance North for 2002/3 and subsequent exhibitions.
Curating paper exhibition for Gallery 482, Brisbane mid 2002

Major Commission

1995 HTM Wilson stockbrokers Riverside Centre Brisbane

Collections

Department of Primary Industries Qld
James Hardy Library of Aust Fine Arts Collection
Qld Arts Council
Toowoomba TAFE College Library
many private collections.

Lost and Found - Helen Sanderson

I would like to explore the concept of lost/found relating to land…ownership/ stewardship/ guardianship/ participating in land ownership/management for a part of one’s life, for some people for generations within the one family and the expectations that come of this.

In Australia we have the oldest landmass on earth. It is a beautiful country. The land has been in existence the longest time…and scientists now think various peoples have existed here for as long as man has been on earth. The history of Australia is being rewritten today. The scientists are looking at the prehistory through archaeological explorations and discoveries. Our past and present are inextricably linked.

The early written history of Australia is now viewed as Euro centric. The long history of Australian aboriginals is only now being recorded in written terms. Early aboriginal history was recorded in folklore, dance and paintings handed down through countless generations. Aboriginal land rights are a major political issue today. Their relationship to the land is paramount to their existence.

English/European ancestors from both my fathers and mothers families migrated here in mid 1900’s and settled on the land in the same area. Four generations of the family worked on the farming land before my generation moved on to other occupations and interests and in some cases migrated away themselves. My own feelings of loss when confronted with the sale of this family land were significant, but not as great as my fathers who had to move away after a lifetime of passionately loving living and working there. What rights do people have to feelings of attachment to the land? The land will continue in whatever form regardless of "man’s" brief stay.

For people with no attachment/involvement to the land it must be difficult to understand how people could experience loss when it comes to something like land ownership. The land has existed "forever" and each "man’s" stewardship is in the scheme of things is so insignificant. Careless or destructive stewardship is devastating.

Within my work I will explore my personal relationship with the land I grew up on…the feelings of loss I experienced and finding of a broader perspective on reflection. I hope that by taking personal experience, I will be working towards one that is more universal.

Helen Sanderson
Brisbane
Australia

www.helensanderson.com.au
[email protected]