SARAH WOOLFENDEN
MUSICIAN | PERFORMANCE ARTIST | VISUAL ARTIST
“Sarah is a high priestess of stupidity, a natural and ridiculous ceremonial idiot from another dimension.”
Dan Lees, Co-founder of the London Clown Festival
VISUAL ART
My work is influenced by the landscape of the far west of Cornwall - hills, horizons, paths, standing stones, jetties and boat shapes. The starting point for a piece is often a very quick sketch containing the essence of an idea, and the eventual form of each object emerges through the process of making. The final sculptures are often ambiguous, somewhere between natural formations and more human-made objects.
Marks are incorporated into each piece by printing, drawing, painting and cutting into the slab, or by pressing elements into it, before and during the construction process. These printed slabs are then cut and assembled to form an object. Working very much by eye or instinct and cutting out unexpected shapes because they seem to work with their surface markings, the final form may refer only loosely to the initial drawing.
Often the object has to be propped up while I am working on it, and pieces precariously balanced while I decide what to place where. This may then involve pieces breaking or cracking and so changing the form. The object may in fact emerge as it is because that is what could be supported. The joints, cracks, cuts, mistakes, rethinkings are not hidden. In fact, these are all integral to the final piece. It becomes a record of its own creation.
ABOUT
I was born and have lived in London for most of my life.
I am a musician (trumpet and voice), a visual artist (ceramic
sculpture and print) and a performance artist (currently exploring clown work).
As a professional musician I have twenty years experience in creating,
performing and recording music from carnival street music, gypsy folk and jazz to contemporary classical and experimental improvisation. My improvisations and compositions have been heard at: The London Jazz Festival; O2 Shepherds Bush Empire; Supernormal; End of the Road; WOW Festival; Southbank Centre; The Vortex; The 100 Club; Iklectik; and on Resonance
FM and on BBC Radio 6. My current projects include: WOOLFENDEN, Tolerance Maneouvre and Pelican Assembly.
I have a degree in Fine Art (Sculpture) and a Diploma in Ceramics and experience in
Printmaking. I have been part of the Camberwell Arts Festival since 2011, and have participated in group exhibitions at: Rye Art Gallery; Tannery Gallery (Bermondsey); ‘Hidden Art’ Shoreditch Town Hall; ‘New Designers' (Islington Design Centre).
My clowning began in 1998 when I invited people, some dressed as woodland animals, to a ritual performance entitled ‘An Angelic Union with Nature’ in which I married a tree on Hampstead Heath. I have woven clowning into my performance practice since then. In 2020 I collaborated with movement artist, Mirie Ya, to create ‘Condolence’, performed at low tide on the Thames foreshore as part of the monthly performance art event ‘Come Hell Or High Water’ which also included performances by the artists Anne Bean and Richard Wilson. In March 2020 I performed as a trumpet playing clown at alt cabaret night ‘Creme Anglais’ at L’Escargot (Soho).
During lockdown I created a film with Justin Harries under the name 'WOOLFENDEN' which combined an
improvised soundtrack with images of my ceramic works for 'Mopomoso', which was live streamed.
I am now bringing my creative practices together exploring a journey of fragmentation to integration through spontaneity, improvisation and embracing mistakes in the unplanned.
