SARAH ENRIGHT_FLESH FOR PHANTASY

Sarah Enright is a multidisciplinary artist working in the expanded field of painting and performance, whose output is often realised with the assistance of unconventional materials, situations, and audiences. Literally, and as a means to structure her performances, collage has come to categorise Enright’s image-making. This affinity for remixing and revision has conjured a new visual language that is uniquely the artist’s own. Her work strikes a union of the real and abstract that probes the uncanny. It is in this way that Enright pays homage to histories of Dada collage and even earlier Rococo ornamentation. Where the former movement strove to represent often disparate ideas at an instant, the latter celebrated highly decorative and serpentine curvature in art, furnishings and architecture.

For her debut OLSEN Gallery exhibition, Enright presents Flesh for Phantasy, a series of works on paper made from hand-cut elements. Collected over many years, the magazine clippings are reimagined to form dynamic compositions that are spirited by their variety. Each artwork is framed behind UV-reducing archival Art Glass and mounted with Japanese hinges in a bespoke Italian moulding.

These intuitive arrangements embody a theatrical and mythical eroticism. With a meticulous application of human sensibility, the artist acts as a surgeon; each piece is delicately scissor-cut, dismembered from its recognisable origin, then reanimated. Biomorphic forms of sensuous and fluid gestures abandon themselves to a world of make-believe. The works offer up multiple interpretations as their glossy materiality and opulent housing invite the viewer in. Artist statement, 2023.

Enright’s practice has been supported by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the National Gallery of Victoria, and by Schaubühne, Berlin, among other leading institutions. Last year she was a finalist in the annual Waverley Art Prize (2022).

Enright Love's Vanitas, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in chrome bespoke Italian moulding 52 x 41 cm

Sarah Enright

And god so tore the heart of his favourite , 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in chrome bespoke Italian moulding 56 x 42 cm

Sarah Enright Piercing the slippery light, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed

standard in black gloss Italian moulding

Sarah Enright

An angel and her shadow, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in chrome bespoke Italian moulding 52 x 41 cm

Sarah Enright

Of ourselves we formed weapons, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in chrome bespoke Italian moulding 56 x 42 cm

Sarah Enright Betwixt scapula and spine, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in chrome bespoke Italian moulding 52 x 41 cm

Sarah Enright

du paradis, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in black gloss Italian moulding 52 x 41 cm

Sarah Enright

more flowers, please, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in matte black Italian moulding 56 x 42 cm

Sarah Enright Love letter to Berlin, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to

standard in black gloss Italian moulding

x 41 cm

Raising spirits, casting light, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in chrome bespoke Italian moulding 52 x 41 cm

Sarah Enright Tender and glisten, 2023 paper collage on 300gsm cotton rag, framed to conservation standard in chrome bespoke Italian moulding 52 x 41 cm