Sally Anderson's 'Self Storage and the Really Real'

When reading up on the first story we wrote about artist Sally Anderson for this piece, I realised that we featured her almost EXACTLY a year ago to the day! Well, one day off a year. But how’s that for serendipity?!

Back then, Sally was about to show her first solo exhibition at Brisbane’s Edwina Corlette Gallery. Since then, she’s had a solo show (‘Beside The Point, Beside Myself, Beside You’) at Olsen Gallery in Sydney, was the recipient of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Arts Scholarship, has moved house and studios, and is about to open her third solo show, ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’ at Edwina Corlette. Oh yeah, and she’s also expecting her first baby!

A lot can happen in a year.

Written

Sally Tabart

Landscape as Room, Room as Womb, 2017, acrylic on linen, 152 x 244 cm, part of the exhibition ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’. Courtesy of Edwina Corlette.

Sally was the 2017 recipient of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Arts Scholarship. Go Sally! Photo – Nikki To.

Tosha Falls as Curtains with Deegan Drive or LJ’s Mum’s Hydrangeas, 2017, acrylic on linen, 122 x 122 cm, part of the exhibition ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’. Courtesy of Edwina Corlette.

Guy’s Lord Howe With LJ’s Mum’s Hydrangeas (Ben’s Kitchen and Deegan Drive) 2017, acrylic on linen, 91 x 100 cm, part of the exhibition ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’. Courtesy of Edwina Corlette.

Skies are Ceilings, Distances are Walls, acrylic on board 160 x 122 cm, part of the exhibition ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’. Courtesy of Edwina Corlette.

Sally Anderson in her studio. Photo – Nikki To.

A Bunch of Deegan Drive Hydrangeas on the Darling, 2018, acrylic on board, 160 x 122 cm, part of the exhibition ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’. Courtesy of Edwina Corlette.

A Still from Guido’s ‘Into the Outback, Volume 6’ (A Souviner for You), 2018, acrylic on board, 60 x 81 cm, part of the exhibition ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’. Courtesy of Edwina Corlette.

Writer

Sally Tabart

31st of January 2018

Sally Anderson’s current exhibition (as in, it’s opening tomorrow) looks at the ways we authenticate experience, and store memory in object and place.

The works in ‘Self Storage and the Really Real’ depict still life objects within abstracted landscapes, each item holding significant and specific memories.   Depicting visual ‘souvenirs’ attached to her own memories and experiences, for Sally, this body of work is semi auto-biographical. ‘I have always been interested in the capacity of objects to hold memory and experience,’ Sally explains, ‘I am consciously working through specific experiences within my work, though there is a point when the work takes over.’

Similarly, the ‘Really Real’ component of the exhibition title relates to how we assign authenticity to our experiences. ‘For example, buying a souvenir on holiday or taking a photograph,’ Sally suggests, ‘things which make our experiences more “real”’.

After a whirlwind 12 months, Sally is showing no signs of slowing down! This year she’ll be travelling to Europe for a residency as part of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Arts Scholarship, and at some stage, having her baby!

One thing’s for sure though – Sally will certainly be making plenty of ‘really real’ memories this year.

‘Self Storage and the Really Real’ opens February 3rd at Edwina Corlette Gallery in Brisbane.

For opening times and further information visit edwinacorlette.com