Jen Valender
HARP SCULPTURE PERFORMANCE
JEN VALENDER, GENEVIEVE FRY, EMILY KOSTOS
1 March, 2.30pm
Biennale site 1, meet at Lorne Beach carpark
Jen Valender creates performative encounters on and with the landscape that raise questions about the relationship between art and the natural world. Through sound, sculpture and performance, Valender explores the ways in which art may be used to investigate and navigate human and elemental connections. Her practice is centred around the perception of sound, human and nonhuman, as a tool for communicating both the cerebral and ineffable. Grounded in the cinematic, Valender is inspired by site-specificity, material conditions, ecology, ethical dilemmas and poetic problems.
Clearfell transforms an antique ABC TV satellite tripod into an Aeolian harp, a sculptural instrument activated by the wind. The materials used reflect the site’s layered history as a former clearfell logging tramway, referencing archival photographs. Harp bow horsehair and a brass amplifier materially echo the harnesses of these horse-drawn trams, while steel elements mirror the fittings used on timber trolleys, and salvaged wood recalls the felled Otway forests. In Clearfell, the wind becomes both performer and sound-maker, collaborating with live performers in an ephemeral exchange of sound and movement. The project renders the intangible—air currents and harmonic frequencies—tangible, fostering deep listening to the airscape and landscape.
As part of the Biennale’s Sculpture+ program, Valender will activate this work through an ethereal performance with two harpists, Genevieve Fry and Emily Kostos, in the context of the dramatic coastline of Point Grey.
Accessibility
This event requires a short walk. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about mobility or require assistance.
This project was made possible by the Australian Government Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia, and Regional Arts Victoria.
Image: Jen Valender, Artist as Animal, 2022, still image from single channel video.
