
Sarah Contos, Pierrot in the Bushes, 2020, oil on wood, 38 x 61cm. Courtesy the artist and STATION, Melbourne
STATION
Melbourne
For ‘My Friend, Lavender’, Sarah Contos continues her exploration of theatrical narrative and drama through assemblage, with a new experimental and tactile process: painting. Drawing from costume design, fashion, face painting and camp culture, Contos creates an alternate landscape of soft sculptures, echoing overly romanticised ideas of sentimentality, play and the whimsical. Works are filled with imagery of floral still-lives, animals, fashion iconography, theatrical devices and hybrid animal-human subjects, capturing a frenzy of the everyday to popular culture; neutralised by the therapeutic properties of the exhibition title.