SPRING1883 Art Fair | Room 422
Jen Valender x ALPHA60 Project Space
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Sculptural forms encounter, endure and imagine bodies of water—from shower stalls and hotel loos to storm-washed shores—tracing the uncanny journeys between place, material and memory.
Bathroom
Hairy Storm Prawn, 2025, bronze, synthetic textile
Series of three
Bronze prawns, imagined as marine remnants washed ashore after a violent storm. Their forms are tangled with synthetic hair, merging crustacean anatomy with human detritus. Part of a series exploring objects caught between aquatic life and imagined aftermath.
Holding (after the storm), 2025, bronze crab claws, synthetic textile, gold pigment
Imagined as debris washed ashore after a heavy storm, the dismembered claws are adorned with hair and tipped with black paint. Unlike others in the series, this sculpture has not encountered water—existing instead as a vision of what might be left behind.
Alpha60 Goldfish, dead, 2025, brass, identification polaroid, fringe tassel. Body of water experienced: Alpha60 Chapter House loo.
Once a looping projection on the walls of Alpha60’s Chapter House, the goldfish is now well and truly gone. Cast in brass and tagged with an ID Polaroid it meets its final body of water—the Chapter House bathroom. One in a series of sculptures dispatched to experience different bodies of water.
Goldfish, dead, or how I learned about death, 2025, bronze, gold pigment, identification polaroid. Body of waters experienced: NGV International toilet + Windsor Hotel Room 422 loo.
A goldfish rendered in bronze and gold pigment and tagged with an ID Polaroid. This specimen has experienced two bodies of water: the NGV International toilet and the Windsor Hotel Room 422 bathroom. Part of a series charting the journeys—and endings—of sculptures through different aquatic sites.
Shower Opera, Prince Cover, 2025, single channel film, 3min, stereo sound, looped, refurbished portable Japanese audio-visual unit with contemporary digital enhancements, c.1970.
Filmed in situ in the shower of Room 422 at Melbourne’s Windsor Hotel, this single-channel, three-minute film captures a performance of Purple Rain by the Artist formerly known as Prince. The work merges shower singing with operatic delivery, staged through a refurbished 1970s Japanese audio-visual unit enhanced with contemporary digital technology. The unit serves as the singer’s head, with its fringing forming the body, presented as a continuous loop.
Opera singer: Tessa McKenna.
Bedroom
Stormborne, 2025, single channel moving image with stereo sound, 12min 30sec.
Director of Photography: Jen Valender
Assistant Director: Dr. D.
Sound mix: Simon Ratcliff, Sound & Motion Studios
Sound design: James Olivier
Composer: Sean Sutton
Colourist: Eva Otsing
Stormborne drifts through the salt-bitten air of Point Nepean, a coastline shaped by wind, war and quarantine. Once a military training ground and later a place of isolation during outbreaks of disease, this headland carries the weight of both human defence and surrender. Filmed in the shadow of Victoria’s long COVID lockdowns, the work listens to what lingers—grief, breath, weather.
At its heart are sculptural drums, assembled from salvaged local materials and an antique weather map. These instruments are not struck by human hands, but awakened by the storm itself—wind and rain pressing against skin, making sound, bearing witness.
Made during a winter residency, Stormborne captures the season’s rising turbulence and the elemental theatre of a changing climate. It is a portrait of exposure. Like infectious disease, environmental collapse offers no exemption—status, wealth, and borders fall away. We are equally porous to air, to atmosphere, to what comes next.
Storm Passage Lamp, 2024, Australasian weather map printed by George Philip & Son, Ltd, London, 1964, paper on cotton canvas, brass, water proof lights.
Born from the salt-bitten coast of Point Nepean, these drums are forged from salvaged local materials and an antique Australasian weather map. Unlike traditional instruments, they do not need hands—the storm itself strikes, presses, and sings through them. Having endured coastal storms, these sculptures stand as elemental witnesses to climate’s shifting theatre, bearing the scars and sounds of exposure.
Drain Charms, whitebait series, 2025, bronze, gold pigment, identification polaroids.
Edition of 12
Twelve bronze whitebait, gilded with gold pigment and tagged with identification Polaroids, undertake individual journeys through the storm drains beneath Elizabeth Street. Beneath the city’s streets runs a hidden river, feeding into the Yarra, and these drains carry the city above water during sudden downpours. Each whitebait traces its own passage, navigating the subterranean currents that sustain urban life.
Drain Charm #1
Flinders Street Station drain, Yarra River entrance, river level, bottom of stairs. American tourists commented “weird” in passing.
Drain Charm #2
Drain by riverside seating, Yarra River. Shoeless man watched while smoking a joint.
Drain Charm #3
Drain beside Clean Our Rivers National Landcare Program waterways filter. Sign nearby: Clean your waterways enquiries: 03 9465 1144.
Drain Charm #4
Drain by river works. High-vis vest pacing back and forth overhead. Underpass view partially blocked by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Drain Charm #5
Flinders Street Station, Elizabeth Street underpass. Do not spit. Commuters giving strange looks. Staff ignoring.
Drain Charm #6
Stormwater drain, Elizabeth Street right side, facing away from the station, outside Melbourne Halal Kebab & Pizza. Woman with pink hair stopped to ask, “What is your point of view?”
Drain Charm #7
25 Elizabeth Street, left side, between two drains. Bronze almost run over by black Mercedes. Outside potential “retail goldmine” vacant lot.
Drain Charm #8
Outside Palermo Perfumes and Collins Street tram stop. Witnessed by a cluster of lime bikes.
Drain Charm #9
Corner of Little Collins. In the sun, in the cycle lane. Cyclists thought it was very strange. Right side.
Drain Charm #10
Outside Acne Studios, right side, corner of Little Bourke Street. Green electric box nearby.
Drain Charm #11
Between two trucks. Precarious. Almost lost the bronze in the drain. Guy with dreadlocks startled me; he asked, “How much did you win?”
Drain Charm #12
A rubbish truck crashing by. Violin player competing for sound space. Corner of Elizabeth and A’Beckett Streets. Almost knocked into drain by Deliveroo e-bike. Smelled like soy noodles in transit.
Documentation: Tom Noble
August 2025
Jen Valender x ALPHA60 Project Space
Sculptural forms encounter, endure and imagine bodies of water—from shower stalls and hotel loos to storm-washed shores—tracing the uncanny journeys between place, material and memory.
Bathroom
Hairy Storm Prawn, 2025, bronze, synthetic textile
Series of three
Bronze prawns, imagined as marine remnants washed ashore after a violent storm. Their forms are tangled with synthetic hair, merging crustacean anatomy with human detritus. Part of a series exploring objects caught between aquatic life and imagined aftermath.
Holding (after the storm), 2025, bronze crab claws, synthetic textile, gold pigment
Imagined as debris washed ashore after a heavy storm, the dismembered claws are adorned with hair and tipped with black paint. Unlike others in the series, this sculpture has not encountered water—existing instead as a vision of what might be left behind.
Alpha60 Goldfish, dead, 2025, brass, identification polaroid, fringe tassel. Body of water experienced: Alpha60 Chapter House loo.
Once a looping projection on the walls of Alpha60’s Chapter House, the goldfish is now well and truly gone. Cast in brass and tagged with an ID Polaroid it meets its final body of water—the Chapter House bathroom. One in a series of sculptures dispatched to experience different bodies of water.
Goldfish, dead, or how I learned about death, 2025, bronze, gold pigment, identification polaroid. Body of waters experienced: NGV International toilet + Windsor Hotel Room 422 loo.
A goldfish rendered in bronze and gold pigment and tagged with an ID Polaroid. This specimen has experienced two bodies of water: the NGV International toilet and the Windsor Hotel Room 422 bathroom. Part of a series charting the journeys—and endings—of sculptures through different aquatic sites.
Shower Opera, Prince Cover, 2025, single channel film, 3min, stereo sound, looped, refurbished portable Japanese audio-visual unit with contemporary digital enhancements, c.1970.
Filmed in situ in the shower of Room 422 at Melbourne’s Windsor Hotel, this single-channel, three-minute film captures a performance of Purple Rain by the Artist formerly known as Prince. The work merges shower singing with operatic delivery, staged through a refurbished 1970s Japanese audio-visual unit enhanced with contemporary digital technology. The unit serves as the singer’s head, with its fringing forming the body, presented as a continuous loop.
Opera singer: Tessa McKenna.
Bedroom
Stormborne, 2025, single channel moving image with stereo sound, 12min 30sec.
Director of Photography: Jen Valender
Assistant Director: Dr. D.
Sound mix: Simon Ratcliff, Sound & Motion Studios
Sound design: James Olivier
Composer: Sean Sutton
Colourist: Eva Otsing
Stormborne drifts through the salt-bitten air of Point Nepean, a coastline shaped by wind, war and quarantine. Once a military training ground and later a place of isolation during outbreaks of disease, this headland carries the weight of both human defence and surrender. Filmed in the shadow of Victoria’s long COVID lockdowns, the work listens to what lingers—grief, breath, weather.
At its heart are sculptural drums, assembled from salvaged local materials and an antique weather map. These instruments are not struck by human hands, but awakened by the storm itself—wind and rain pressing against skin, making sound, bearing witness.
Made during a winter residency, Stormborne captures the season’s rising turbulence and the elemental theatre of a changing climate. It is a portrait of exposure. Like infectious disease, environmental collapse offers no exemption—status, wealth, and borders fall away. We are equally porous to air, to atmosphere, to what comes next.
Storm Passage Lamp, 2024, Australasian weather map printed by George Philip & Son, Ltd, London, 1964, paper on cotton canvas, brass, water proof lights.
Born from the salt-bitten coast of Point Nepean, these drums are forged from salvaged local materials and an antique Australasian weather map. Unlike traditional instruments, they do not need hands—the storm itself strikes, presses, and sings through them. Having endured coastal storms, these sculptures stand as elemental witnesses to climate’s shifting theatre, bearing the scars and sounds of exposure.
Drain Charms, whitebait series, 2025, bronze, gold pigment, identification polaroids.
Edition of 12
Twelve bronze whitebait, gilded with gold pigment and tagged with identification Polaroids, undertake individual journeys through the storm drains beneath Elizabeth Street. Beneath the city’s streets runs a hidden river, feeding into the Yarra, and these drains carry the city above water during sudden downpours. Each whitebait traces its own passage, navigating the subterranean currents that sustain urban life.
Drain Charm #1
Flinders Street Station drain, Yarra River entrance, river level, bottom of stairs. American tourists commented “weird” in passing.
Drain Charm #2
Drain by riverside seating, Yarra River. Shoeless man watched while smoking a joint.
Drain Charm #3
Drain beside Clean Our Rivers National Landcare Program waterways filter. Sign nearby: Clean your waterways enquiries: 03 9465 1144.
Drain Charm #4
Drain by river works. High-vis vest pacing back and forth overhead. Underpass view partially blocked by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Drain Charm #5
Flinders Street Station, Elizabeth Street underpass. Do not spit. Commuters giving strange looks. Staff ignoring.
Drain Charm #6
Stormwater drain, Elizabeth Street right side, facing away from the station, outside Melbourne Halal Kebab & Pizza. Woman with pink hair stopped to ask, “What is your point of view?”
Drain Charm #7
25 Elizabeth Street, left side, between two drains. Bronze almost run over by black Mercedes. Outside potential “retail goldmine” vacant lot.
Drain Charm #8
Outside Palermo Perfumes and Collins Street tram stop. Witnessed by a cluster of lime bikes.
Drain Charm #9
Corner of Little Collins. In the sun, in the cycle lane. Cyclists thought it was very strange. Right side.
Drain Charm #10
Outside Acne Studios, right side, corner of Little Bourke Street. Green electric box nearby.
Drain Charm #11
Between two trucks. Precarious. Almost lost the bronze in the drain. Guy with dreadlocks startled me; he asked, “How much did you win?”
Drain Charm #12
A rubbish truck crashing by. Violin player competing for sound space. Corner of Elizabeth and A’Beckett Streets. Almost knocked into drain by Deliveroo e-bike. Smelled like soy noodles in transit.
Documentation: Tom Noble
August 2025