Margarita Sampson: Artist Statement & Bio

Human life to me has always been part of a rich and interconnected world, rising and falling, living and dying, interdependent: the mouth of a flower is also my mouth, the surface of a prickly pear is like testicles and soft anemone forms are like our own soft tissues. Healthy and unhealthy; reaching maturity and falling away. In my work, allusions to multiple forms are drawn but not cemented. For me, the power of the work comes from a rich soup of inferences which the viewer provides from their own experience. I say, “is this not unlike...” and you say “yes, but also...”.' The works bring up questions, invites narrative and suggests possible futures with any number of outcomes.

Margarita Sampson was raised on Norfolk Island, and the varied sea life made an indelible impression on her as a small child. As an adult, her sculpture and jewellery work draws upon this rich visual vocabulary. All works are meticulously hand-made by the artist, comprising of hand and machine sewn textiles. In Sampson's Infectious Desires series, the found furniture is sawn and altered, re-carved and gilded, before being overlaid with textile 'landscapes'.

Born in Nowra, NSW (1970), Margarita Sampson grew up on Norfolk Island, attending COFA in Sydney with a BA & M.Art in painting (1990, 92). She began textile sculptural work in response to the first Sculpture Sea (1997) & a photograph of her initial work ‘Urchins’ went become one of the defining images of the exhibition in its early days. Her following work “Fish Curtain’ received the People’s Choice in 1998. Her textile work is often inspired by her childhood summers spent moving between aquatic & terrestrial realms on Norfolk, and embraces hybrid soft forms that transition between human, animal, vegetative and mineral states. 

After some 15 years away from Australia, Sampson returned in 2011 and won the Object section of the Waterhouse Art Prize in 2012 with her work ‘Anenome Incursions: Zsa-Zsa', and subsequent works been finalists in the Wynne prize, the Blake Prize, twelve Sculpture by the Seas Exhibitions and most recently won the Hillview Indoor Sculpture Award 2018.  Her solo show ‘Infectious Desires’ at Stanley Street Gallery in 2015 received international press coverage and critical acclaim. 

Sampson’s work often takes a domestic object and imagines a paradigm of excessive growth, where the soft parts grow and overtake the host, a reflection on current environmental unbalances and possible ecosystem collapse. The work is also very personal, as the objects contain lush openings, curvaceous forms, are provocative and often feminist; meditating on the artist’s aging body within society and spiritually reflecting the artist’s Buddhist practice. She currently lives in a meditation retreat centre. 

Sampson works with commercially available textiles and found objects for her interior works, but also draws on her jewellery practice for work utilising enamel and copper, and wood and steel for large outdoor works.

Margarita Sampson: CV January, 2020 Download

Tor Larsen: Artist Statement & Bio

Tor’s artwork is inspired by film making processes in which a scene is defined by a camera frame enclosing environments, objects/props that viewers mentally and occasionally physically interact with. His disturbing and surreal creations are infused with a sense of lost history, changing social/philosophical values as well as well as darker subconscious themes.

The choice of materials has always been important for Tor. His preference for found and recycled materials and objects imbued with their own history, is crucial to his conceptual development, often informing the construction, ultimate shape and meaning in a given work.

Also crucial to his create process; is the juxtaposition of unlikely materials, objects and ideas as a means of stimulating thought and emotional responses in the viewer, sometimes affected through mechanical interaction with a work where the viewer becomes part of the process of its realisation.

Much of Tor's work attempts to recapture pasts; real, imagined or simply felt as well as to project a virtual and potentially threatening future into the mind of the viewer.

As an artist, Tor gained early exposure to tools and processes in his parent’s jewellery workshop. His first jobs were as a model and prop-maker which led to further employment in the film industry building miniature scenes and creating visual effects. In 1998, he completed a diploma in production design at the AFTRS, following which he worked for various companies and productions on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne as an art director and visual effects coordinator, eventually becoming a producer in Sydney. In 2015 Tor completed a degree in political economy at Sydney University. More recently he has been making jewellery, small sculptures and miniature installations that reflect his political, social and historical/cultural interests as experienced through the cinematic frame. His most recent exhibition was held with his parents and sister, Two Generations: Larsen & Lewers Pia Larsen, Tor Larsen at Spot81 gallery, Sydney in 2016.

Tor Larsen: CV January, 2020 Download

Snem Yildirim: Artist Statement & Bio

For me, contemporary jewellery is the way to express myself. I create by taking inspiration from the cultural texture of Turkey and its' georgraphy. The diversities and the contrasts of this Turkey are the colors of my universe and works. I experience the materials and production techniques by blending the contrasts; such as the east and the west, the local and the global, the traditional and the modern, the geometric and the organic.

Snem Yildirim was born in Ankara, Turkey. She graduated from Gazi University, Department of Architecture, and in 2011 she started to study Architectural Design Master Program at Istanbul Bilgi University. By Inout Project she produced several projects within the scope of city and public space. She continued Leather Footwear and Accessories Design Program at Istanbul Moda Academy in partnership with the University of Arts London, in 2013. Currently, she creates art jewelry and is a member of Yaygara Contemporary Art Initiative.

Snem Yildirim: CV January, 2020 Download