Jane Polkinghorne & Sarah Newall
Jane Polkinghorne has been based in Mildura until recently relocating to Harcourt in regional Victoria. Her practice explores disgust, humour and pleasure through video, photo-media, performance and installation. She has also run gallery spaces from her own home. Her recent work considers sustainability in regional and community settings, and how caring for community can be supported through art practice.
Sarah Newall is also based in rural Victoria. She investigates the usefulness and sustainability of the everyday objects needed in her ordinary life. She is trying to live by the zero waste principles of Refuse, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Rot. In line with this, she creates seasonal wardrobes called ‘Fashist’ out of fabric from remnant shops, donated materials and wool from family and friends. Fashist will now be forever ongoing and evolving. Prior to moving to Regional Victoria, Jane and Sarah created an ARI, Marrickville Garage, out of their suburban Sydney garage, in 2013.
Sarah Newall, Recycled Paintings, 2016
Jane Polkinghorne, Mask making workshop with XS Collective, Mildura, July 2019
Jane Polkinghorne and Sarah Newall presented new work in the Care Exhibition Program at Lot 19, Castlemaine, supported by Regional Arts Victoria, in December 2020. Sarah Newall exhibited the installation fashist: they say, ‘I am researching and designing gender non-conforming fashion as I have found that there is a lack of access to affordable clothes in this field in Australia’. Jane Polkinghorne exhibited new video work Treetment (suite #1-4), she says: ‘Treetment is a speculative encountering and reflection on the cultural dissonance where some trees and plants are ‘allowed’ to live, venerated even, but most continue to be killed so that land can be put towards human use’.