Ben Sanderson
My work lives in a the physical space where paintings can shift, come together or fall apart. My archive is not static; it’s a working space, constantly reshaped and reimagined through the act of making. I paint, print, draw, dye, cut, sew, pulp, as a way of resisting the certainty that words can bring.
Over the past year, I’ve been creating a series of small-scale paintings (15 x 21 cm) during a period of personal loss and reflection. There’s an intimacy in working at this scale and a quiet focus that has allowed me the space to process larger, more overwhelming emotions.
Alongside these pieces, I’ve been reworking older paintings by cutting and sewing them into double-sided works that hang freely in space. These patchworks carry a psychological weight: fragments of the past emerge unexpectedly, confronting me with things I do and don’t want to see.
I don’t see my practice as linear or polished. It’s lived-in, intuitive, and often uncertain. In returning to my archive in this way, memory becomes momentum, not leading to conclusion, but instead acting as a prompt toward something new.
Helping Artists Keep Going
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