SARAH CONTOS

Contos layers and manipulates sourced objects, personal artefacts and vestiges of popular culture to draw attention to the relationships between imagery, form and materiality. Working across sculpture, textiles, painting, video and installation, her work explores how emotional, psychological and theatrical interactions trigger intimate experiential responses within a broader collective memory. Often referencing art history, fashion, theatre and cinema, Contos examines the duality and ontological nature of objects with a contemporary and retrospective mindset.

Magnolia explores ideas of connection and reconnection through materials, objects and cinematic narratives, drawing on the tension between genuine and constructed forms of intimacy. Contos approaches the exhibition like a director, transforming the gallery into a stage where lighting, objects and moving images come together to create a world of interconnected stories. Returning to familiar materials and motifs, Contos brings these elements together to construct an interior world shaped by memory, fantasy and the desire to connect.