Tamara Henderson's practice begins with the diaristic note-taking of her experiences and thoughts under various altered or unconscious states such as sleep or hypnosis. These notes are then elaborated upon and translated into different media: writing, 16mm film, sculpture and painting. Within her very personal and subjective practice, artworks are means, vessels of communication between different states: conscious and unconscious, dream and awake-ness.
Read MoreHenderson's short 16mm films are often based on storyboards or screenplays - texts translated into scenography, images and movements. In each film the succession of events is carefully planned, captured in single shots and edited in-camera. The main characters are often quotidian objects (bottles, glasses, plants, furniture, pineapples) that are manipulated and altered, becoming subjects of a narrative that is both uncanny and ordinary, absurd and familiar – and in which a human presence, the artist's or somebody else's, is never explicit but only implied.
Henderson's ongoing series of sculptural/furniture works are also based on drawings and sketches realized after sessions of hypnosis. The resulting sculptures simultaneously retain dreamlike qualities (bright colors, unconventional shapes) but also their identity as functional objects. Additionally, part of her practice are "storyboard" paintings and collages, realized with different materials, that function as maquettes for the films, and in which symbols and maze-like patterns are recurrent.
Tamara Henderson (born 1982 in Sackville, Canada), lives and works between Vancouver and Stochkolm. Her work has been recently presented in solo shows at Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (Austria); Walter Philips Gallery, Banff Alberta (in collaboration with Julia Feyer) and Kunstverein Nürnberg (2013). She was also recently included in group exhibitions at the Toronto Kunstverein (2014); Kunstverein Nürnberg, Magasin 3, Stockholm, (2013) and DOCUMENTA 13, Kassel (2012). Upcoming presentation include Frieze Live with Rodeo Gallery, London and Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway (with Santiago Mostyn) in 2014; ICA Philadelphia (with Julia Feyer) in 2015.
Text courtesy Andrew Kreps Gallery
