https://jenvalender.com Jen Valender Sat, 08 Aug 2026 14:21:23 +0000 https://jenvalender.com en https://jenvalender.com/Home Sat, 16 Sep 2023 05:06:43 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Home JEN VALENDER ARTWORKS&nbsp; &nbsp;PRESS&nbsp; &nbsp;ABOUT &nbsp; WRITING&nbsp; &nbsp;NEWS&nbsp; &nbsp;CONTACT &nbsp; https://jenvalender.com/Belonging-to-the-Slope Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:12:10 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Belonging-to-the-Slope <img width="1926" height="1016" width_o="1926" height_o="1016" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f757760805f2cfc9a5e2871565c74fa4d08134950cb0877a1be4af87ce20db0a/Sounding-Narrm_IMG1.jpg" data-mid="250875631" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f757760805f2cfc9a5e2871565c74fa4d08134950cb0877a1be4af87ce20db0a/Sounding-Narrm_IMG1.jpg" /> <img width="1024" height="683" width_o="1024" height_o="683" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e66fb765b5368c0ab6b9071ee53b2c451c1de873195139e95501562d0a319eb/BeechworthBiennale2026-582.jpg" data-mid="250875623" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8e66fb765b5368c0ab6b9071ee53b2c451c1de873195139e95501562d0a319eb/BeechworthBiennale2026-582.jpg" /> <img width="4096" height="2160" width_o="4096" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c13cd7f678dfe6742d80795e61efbe798dab2673a085e7ba8f1fdbb39c7f6ef5/A002C303_24100835_CANON.00_05_42_05.Still002.jpg" data-mid="250875639" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c13cd7f678dfe6742d80795e61efbe798dab2673a085e7ba8f1fdbb39c7f6ef5/A002C303_24100835_CANON.00_05_42_05.Still002.jpg" /> <img width="1496" height="790" width_o="1496" height_o="790" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0597dd85580ae8406eced15f7afce4a34b618e22248519eb63ad1d30bed6ac1d/Belonging-to-the-slope-3.png" data-mid="250875686" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0597dd85580ae8406eced15f7afce4a34b618e22248519eb63ad1d30bed6ac1d/Belonging-to-the-slope-3.png" /> <img width="4096" height="2160" width_o="4096" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd084943c80d805c2a89ff7fe187b60eaf6e0cc5e26ed2f66135b74548df15b9/A002C303_24100835_CANON.00_00_28_10.Still001.jpg" data-mid="250875638" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fd084943c80d805c2a89ff7fe187b60eaf6e0cc5e26ed2f66135b74548df15b9/A002C303_24100835_CANON.00_00_28_10.Still001.jpg" /> <img width="963" height="508" width_o="963" height_o="508" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/81229af6f8d36ea5c3dc2f6432fc82576f55a359b55aec0e36db8dc6747fba88/Sounding-Narrm_IMG2.jpg" data-mid="250875632" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/963/i/81229af6f8d36ea5c3dc2f6432fc82576f55a359b55aec0e36db8dc6747fba88/Sounding-Narrm_IMG2.jpg" /> Belonging to the Slope Beechworth Biennale 2026This moving image and sound installation emerges from a performance collaboration between Jen Valender and members of the Taiwan Kacalisian Performing Arts Troupe from Taiwan’s Paridrayan village, Paiwan Ravar Tribe. Bringing together a live duet of Paiwan bamboo flutes and Aeolian harps sounded by the wind in Naarm, alongside a workshop documenting the making of Paiwan “nose flutters” (traditional bamboo nose flutes), the work unfolds as a meditation on sound as an ecological and cultural connective tissue. The work is centred on the Paiwan kacalisian, “belonging to the slope,” a pan-Indigenous identity for Taiwan informed by the belief their&nbsp;identity is inseparable from the mountain landscape.&nbsp;They are born from and return to it when they pass. The sounds of Taiwanese mountain winds are the voices of ancestors from the past. The harmonics of the&nbsp;lalingedan (Paiwan&nbsp;bamboo flute)&nbsp;mimic and echo these winds.&nbsp;In contrast, the flatter terrain of Naarm produces a softer, more diffuse,&nbsp;wind voice, activated through&nbsp;Valender’s&nbsp;Aeolian harps: sculptural instruments sounded directly by atmospheric conditions. Together, these sonic registers articulate how different landscapes shape distinct modes of listening and expression. Restaged as a moving image and sound installation at The Chapel, The Grand Oaks, the work creates a contemplative space where spiritual, ecological and cultural resonances are layered rather than resolved. Attentive to breath, wind and vibration, the installation invites audiences to listen across geographies and traditions, and to consider how sound carries memory, belonging and identity. In holding open a shared auditory space, the work proposes listening as a form of temporary community; one carried, quite literally, on the wind. Members of Taiwan Kacalisian&nbsp;Performing Arts Troupe Etan Pavavalung Zaletj Rupunayan Sakuliu Mananigai Dremedreman Talumiling Sutipau Tjaruzaljum Sedjam Mananigai Ancestral leader: Pairang&nbsp;Pavavaljung Manager: Grace Kuo The artists gratefully acknowledges MPavilion Parkville and the Museums and Collections team, University of Melbourne, for hosting and supporting the live performance captured in this film, as well as&nbsp;appreciation to&nbsp;Art+Australia&nbsp;and to the collaboration project led by Dr. Chloe Ho for their generosity, dialogue and ongoing support of this work. March 2026 https://jenvalender.com/It-is-Necessary-to-Learn-to-Swim Tue, 04 Aug 2026 05:57:07 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/It-is-Necessary-to-Learn-to-Swim <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7bb393121d338bb2be348b0f3d3a11ff2b6077fb8025bc5d8185c0ce2d959574/P8_Jen---Chaohui-003.jpg" data-mid="250973761" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7bb393121d338bb2be348b0f3d3a11ff2b6077fb8025bc5d8185c0ce2d959574/P8_Jen---Chaohui-003.jpg" /> Solo exhibition, project8, Melbourne (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim was an exhibition that traced the porous boundary between memory, myth and the quiet dread of a world reshaping itself. The exhibition took its title from a boatbuilding text, folding together the legacy of a story long used to steady children, Noah’s Ark, with the psychological and physical projections we cast onto vessels of rescue. Sculptural offerings, cast monkey appendages, moving-image works and installation formed a constellation of gestures that drifted between the imagined and the material. A reading circle with macaques, a therapy-like exchange and the remnants of stories half-believed accumulated as quietly dissonant scenes. Anchored by the central moving-image work, (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim,&nbsp;the exhibition returned to the Ark not as a promise of salvation but as an ageing narrative buckling under contemporary pressure. An intimate voice threaded through childhood encounters with rescued animals, hospital rooms and a mirrored chamber teeming with creatures, revealed how tales meant to soothe can instead plant a soft, persistent dread. Preparation and impossibility sat uneasily together; the vessel is never quite large enough, never quite convincing. Across the exhibition, Valender asked what can we carry forward, what slips from our grasp and how we might learn to stay afloat when the stories we inherit can no longer hold us.“Framed through biblical narrative, Jen Valender’s (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim pays homage to the traces left behind in the wake of climate disaster – those surviving things, smells, scratches, and stains that are haunted by loss. Psychoanalytical reflection acts as a storytelling device, linking each work through memory, association, and anecdote, both borrowed and inherited. In this liminal space of talismans, offerings, and fragmented communication, an inevitable, lonely death – a final ending – looms overhead. In the flood that will claim us all;&nbsp;whose hand will you hold?&nbsp;Whose name will you curse? And who/what will you pray&nbsp;to?”&nbsp; – Sachi Orrock Exhibition Catalogue: Here&nbsp; <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0d04e4d5b6cd39b99f4a04ca3c773b7bd25cffc35ab47f65c54e761528e18934/P8_Jen---Chaohui-006.jpg" data-mid="250973704" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0d04e4d5b6cd39b99f4a04ca3c773b7bd25cffc35ab47f65c54e761528e18934/P8_Jen---Chaohui-006.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/48422cf7d7cdf94c97a7a32cae25845c1cbe6a4868128cbef737cf7059cecf07/P8_Jen---Chaohui-009.jpg" data-mid="250973709" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/48422cf7d7cdf94c97a7a32cae25845c1cbe6a4868128cbef737cf7059cecf07/P8_Jen---Chaohui-009.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9a0014bde99d350f1fa2fd485bcb1e38a0c0c902ffac2c8b7e997a991ab22cc/P8_Jen---Chaohui-008.jpg" data-mid="250973707" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c9a0014bde99d350f1fa2fd485bcb1e38a0c0c902ffac2c8b7e997a991ab22cc/P8_Jen---Chaohui-008.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/563ebe62efff8763280ce5db6c083bd1b776a489441b0c474440e5a1c9150321/P8_Jen---Chaohui-007.jpg" data-mid="250973706" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/563ebe62efff8763280ce5db6c083bd1b776a489441b0c474440e5a1c9150321/P8_Jen---Chaohui-007.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b016c812643621d2379eab7eab2b225ee9bb224f11e07188b64943477aa4dbba/P8_Jen---Chaohui-001.jpg" data-mid="250973699" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b016c812643621d2379eab7eab2b225ee9bb224f11e07188b64943477aa4dbba/P8_Jen---Chaohui-001.jpg" /> <img width="1300" height="1222" width_o="1300" height_o="1222" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0805e14233be2bf827adbda4e74c25928960ed064397e14d7510829a63aaff19/Screenshot-2025-11-17-at-11.59.45am.png" data-mid="251080621" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0805e14233be2bf827adbda4e74c25928960ed064397e14d7510829a63aaff19/Screenshot-2025-11-17-at-11.59.45am.png" /> (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim, 2026, mixed media installation including moving image, 6min26sec, on Le Corbusier replica chaise longue, Philippe Starck replica stool, books, faux fur rug and miniature replica of installation. Dimensions variable (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim the artwork is a&nbsp;moving-image installation that unfolds from a reclining position, the story situated on a replica Le Corbusier chaise longue amid books recovered from Lismore following the 2022 floods. The posture evokes both clinical rest and psychoanalytic encounter. Within the film, a therapy-like scene emerges in which the artist’s body is displaced by a digital screen, substituting physical presence with mediated projection. The exchange is intimate yet estranged; confession and consultation occur through technological proxy. The narrative moves between childhood encounters with rescued animals, hospital interiors and early biblical instruction, tracing how the story of Noah’s Ark was introduced as a scaled allegory for catastrophe: manageable, moral, contained. Here, that narrative is re-examined not as promise but as structure: a vessel premised on selection, hierarchy and exclusion. A miniature replica of the installation sits within the work, rendered in resin and paper, restaging the scene at a childlike scale. The Ark persists as both psychological architecture and failing technology—an inherited model of rescue that falters under contemporary ecological pressure. Rather than offering resolution, the work stages an uneasy proximity between care and dread, asking what forms of preparation remain possible when the scale of crisis exceeds the vessels we have been taught to build. <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba7bc7b3f779266f59d5ad8b64c4fb08096a5167b5e7c1b24b1f2c736b646c8d/P8_Jen---Chaohui-014.jpg" data-mid="251080007" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ba7bc7b3f779266f59d5ad8b64c4fb08096a5167b5e7c1b24b1f2c736b646c8d/P8_Jen---Chaohui-014.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77736d0b415190ec3552f1310d2a7a89c2131e4afee63a36353696b7cb5c986c/P8_Jen---Chaohui-045.jpg" data-mid="251080009" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/77736d0b415190ec3552f1310d2a7a89c2131e4afee63a36353696b7cb5c986c/P8_Jen---Chaohui-045.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c76665e0f10f3221cf603bd34aaa2b029139be9b817befd3badcf98fc4a52f3/P8_Jen---Chaohui-013.jpg" data-mid="251079999" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c76665e0f10f3221cf603bd34aaa2b029139be9b817befd3badcf98fc4a52f3/P8_Jen---Chaohui-013.jpg" /> Humanity's Wickedness I &amp; II, 2026, mixed media including cotton, unfired and fired porcelain fragments, 11 x 11 x 8cm, 7 x 7.5 x 8.5cm&nbsp; This paired sculptural work assembles fired and unfired porcelain into precarious reconstructions. Fragments appear sutured together, as though attempting to repair what has already shattered. The contrast between vitrified and raw clay introduces a tension between permanence and vulnerability. In one form, a pair of arms emerges upward, holding a book. The gesture recalls scriptural authority and the narrative architectures that shape collective behaviour. Stories are figured as both burden and anchor; held tightly, even as the ground shifts. The second form draws on the Ark’s dove, here doubled: two heads conjoined within a single fractured body. Together, the works consider belief as both binding agent and fault line. Reconstruction is possible, but never seamless. The seam remains visible. <img width="1246" height="1556" width_o="1246" height_o="1556" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0924c706b790661b0c8b972c6d870813a8abac8ea177dd97560100db9b1633b6/Announces-Decision-to-Destroy_Project8.png" data-mid="251081494" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0924c706b790661b0c8b972c6d870813a8abac8ea177dd97560100db9b1633b6/Announces-Decision-to-Destroy_Project8.png" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2bbe886954b92104c1014014ca6cfc1b639571527725b50207e3dd480daf0ead/P8_Jen---Chaohui-031.jpg" data-mid="251081316" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2bbe886954b92104c1014014ca6cfc1b639571527725b50207e3dd480daf0ead/P8_Jen---Chaohui-031.jpg" /> Announces Decision to Destroy, 2026, digital print on Hahnemuhle bamboo paper, 76 x 76cm Two small photographic fragments sit adrift within a sea of white space. Each derives from a salvaged 35mm film cell sourced in Scottsboro, Alabama—a town adjacent to Dry Creek and periodically affected by flooding. In one image, cars cross a bridge as the roadway appears to buckle or shift, the scene registering instability mid-transit. In the other, a body enters water headfirst—dive or panic indistinguishable. Both images capture thresholds: between land and water, control and surrender, narrative and rupture. The title invokes a divine or governmental decree, yet no authority is pictured. Instead, catastrophe is inferred through gesture and atmosphere. The surrounding white amplifies exposure, isolating each scene as evidence. Disaster is not shown in full; it is anticipated. The decision has been made. Action, however, remains uncertain. Photos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery ((It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim)&nbsp; February - April 2026 https://jenvalender.com/Out-of-Place-Talismans-tails-teeth Wed, 05 Aug 2026 03:19:46 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Out-of-Place-Talismans-tails-teeth Out-of-Place Talismans (tails + teeth) project8 gallery&nbsp;(It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim&nbsp;2026&nbsp; <img width="1200" height="1600" width_o="1200" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7bfa8d7747d18eba7a7095b362efdf913c076f5b4265e23562a91ce959b14b8d/P8_Jen---Chaohui-019.jpg" data-mid="250975143" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7bfa8d7747d18eba7a7095b362efdf913c076f5b4265e23562a91ce959b14b8d/P8_Jen---Chaohui-019.jpg" /><img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dcbf0becf7632daa3fe03ffe077ef781bedac1143f4dbe4767e06661253a4056/P8_Jen---Chaohui-016.jpg" data-mid="250975144" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dcbf0becf7632daa3fe03ffe077ef781bedac1143f4dbe4767e06661253a4056/P8_Jen---Chaohui-016.jpg" /><img width="1200" height="1600" width_o="1200" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ab1cf92731634732ba1f870524a2c782829506301241c7ad3e11764bd3f65e01/P8_Jen---Chaohui-020.jpg" data-mid="250975148" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ab1cf92731634732ba1f870524a2c782829506301241c7ad3e11764bd3f65e01/P8_Jen---Chaohui-020.jpg" /><img width="10665" height="7998" width_o="10665" height_o="7998" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a78dac3009667e7ed9fbce44a8b2ef9ec9a69c41fb63476a8d1446529ea7825c/P8_Jen---Chaohui-021.jpg" data-mid="251076731" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a78dac3009667e7ed9fbce44a8b2ef9ec9a69c41fb63476a8d1446529ea7825c/P8_Jen---Chaohui-021.jpg" /><img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/019ce74b3de45ba80f57a787a9b478ca048d0e5ecc6c75b8b61349cce973424e/P8_Jen---Chaohui-017.jpg" data-mid="250975145" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/019ce74b3de45ba80f57a787a9b478ca048d0e5ecc6c75b8b61349cce973424e/P8_Jen---Chaohui-017.jpg" /><img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/66500d8cc1f6cf9a1f0bfe0be33133738e947956d2149a2b5f2be10d5d6dc5c1/P8_Jen---Chaohui-018.jpg" data-mid="250975146" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/66500d8cc1f6cf9a1f0bfe0be33133738e947956d2149a2b5f2be10d5d6dc5c1/P8_Jen---Chaohui-018.jpg" /> Out-of-Place Talismans (tails + teeth), 2026, letterpress drawers, brass, bronze, 42 x 82cm each Saved from a fire-damaged printing press in Richmond, these timber drawers bear the scorched impressions of missing metal type. The letters are gone, yet their outlines remain; burned into the wood like residual scripts or chalk tracings. Language has been evacuated, leaving only its negative. Within these compartments rest twelve small metal forms: casts of the artist’s extracted wisdom teeth and six hand-formed tails suggestive of cats or monkeys. Sized to the palm, they operate as talismanic objects—tokens of luck, protection or private ritual. Teeth, once embedded in the body, and tails, evolutionary remnants of balance and communication, become minor monuments to instinct and survival. Placed within the charred grid of a former printing system, the works stage a quiet exchange between inscription and loss. Where language once organised meaning, small votive forms now sit. Exhibited as part of the solo exhibition (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim at project8 gallery Melbourne Photos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery ((It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim) February - April 2026 https://jenvalender.com/Recounting-Lore Wed, 05 Jun 2024 09:27:36 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Recounting-Lore <img width="2500" height="1406" width_o="2500" height_o="1406" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d7595558805eb81bfc167fb66bc0a531fe4ac2722efc01cbb2c83737a643fb1/Jen_Valender_Storytelling_2024_IMG1.1.jpg" data-mid="212352372" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d7595558805eb81bfc167fb66bc0a531fe4ac2722efc01cbb2c83737a643fb1/Jen_Valender_Storytelling_2024_IMG1.1.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c87d0af6c794e802b40f8fc473f44ba6198f197ed0335e2b504032d2117dd5fa/P8_Jen---Chaohui-002.jpg" data-mid="251014606" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c87d0af6c794e802b40f8fc473f44ba6198f197ed0335e2b504032d2117dd5fa/P8_Jen---Chaohui-002.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b8dd1abaf8b4753b0d97907213e1d4a165dbe5d3070236ac574ce0533ed39fc8/P8_Jen---Chaohui-004.jpg" data-mid="251014607" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b8dd1abaf8b4753b0d97907213e1d4a165dbe5d3070236ac574ce0533ed39fc8/P8_Jen---Chaohui-004.jpg" /> <img width="1876" height="1055" width_o="1876" height_o="1055" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ed727f541465839556a17939070dbfa08be1c16fdf1205be96cce24dd3eef435/Jen_Valender_Storytelling_2024_IMG1.jpg" data-mid="212352381" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ed727f541465839556a17939070dbfa08be1c16fdf1205be96cce24dd3eef435/Jen_Valender_Storytelling_2024_IMG1.jpg" /> Recounting Lore (2026)&nbsp; A dual channel film that documents the artist reading The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells to an unconventional audience of macaques and monarch butterflies in Indonesia. Subtitles partially rewrite the source text, constructing a speculative cross-species dialogue. Yet the address fails. The animals do not comprehend; the reading falls on deaf ears. A bosun’s chair is suspended in the gallery, cradling a small monitor. It reads equally as industrial apparatus and improvised child’s swing. Behind it, a large-scale projection plays the same film out of sync, establishing a doubled structure that operates like parent and child: one intimate, one declarative. The authority of reportage slips into fiction. The work oscillates between earnest address and absurd theatre. What does it mean to narrate planetary emergency to those already living within its consequences? The reading circle becomes a scene of displacement, where urgency meets indifference and communication falters. DoP: Dr D Exhibited as part of the solo exhibition (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim,&nbsp;February - April 2026, project8 gallery MelbournePhotos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery <img width="1618" height="1049" width_o="1618" height_o="1049" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7cb56c1e7b6f65ddd07045e8f4b4f697ea2e79210001728379dad4f434c6deba/Recounting-Lore-IMG1.1.jpg" data-mid="251014675" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7cb56c1e7b6f65ddd07045e8f4b4f697ea2e79210001728379dad4f434c6deba/Recounting-Lore-IMG1.1.jpg" /><img width="2082" height="1172" width_o="2082" height_o="1172" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/362663074ef45199f6518df9cbf6688b02a2b7b34eb20c6440d916ba08a0a339/Rounting-Lore-3-copy.jpg" data-mid="212352446" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/362663074ef45199f6518df9cbf6688b02a2b7b34eb20c6440d916ba08a0a339/Rounting-Lore-3-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1936" height="1088" width_o="1936" height_o="1088" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/74d450eb1b0aec69b7cdc26c59234fcc1b210264e6785efe06dd8bead3ceacc8/Recounting-Lore-2.jpg" data-mid="212352450" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/74d450eb1b0aec69b7cdc26c59234fcc1b210264e6785efe06dd8bead3ceacc8/Recounting-Lore-2.jpg" /> May 2024 https://jenvalender.com/Inventory-of-Collectables-After-the-Flood-Lismore-Please-No-Alligators Sat, 08 Aug 2026 04:00:52 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Inventory-of-Collectables-After-the-Flood-Lismore-Please-No-Alligators Inventory of Collectables After the Flood (Lismore): Please No Alligators I &amp; II project8 gallery&nbsp;(It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim&nbsp;2026 <img width="11630" height="8723" width_o="11630" height_o="8723" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2a9d41cf355de214d043e895807539e454ff2dbf0c6c511e21e4a9617e61571d/P8_Jen---Chaohui-025.jpg" data-mid="251076319" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2a9d41cf355de214d043e895807539e454ff2dbf0c6c511e21e4a9617e61571d/P8_Jen---Chaohui-025.jpg" /> <img width="11054" height="8290" width_o="11054" height_o="8290" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fe440e2594dde9db2f49d0f5a1dba7dad68c01626a488a4c1b72fdb179611955/P8_Jen---Chaohui-023.jpg" data-mid="251076315" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fe440e2594dde9db2f49d0f5a1dba7dad68c01626a488a4c1b72fdb179611955/P8_Jen---Chaohui-023.jpg" /> <img width="7481" height="9974" width_o="7481" height_o="9974" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/899c9df1f5bae5c6eab495d1b51ff91d93a8b008958460128a4d27d6c70bafc4/P8_Jen---Chaohui-026.jpg" data-mid="251076320" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/899c9df1f5bae5c6eab495d1b51ff91d93a8b008958460128a4d27d6c70bafc4/P8_Jen---Chaohui-026.jpg" /> Inventory of Collectables After the Flood (Lismore): Please No Alligators I, 2026, &nbsp;Ilfotex print (water resistant fabric), water colour pigment and a single strand of artist's hair, 84.1 x 59.4cm. Inventory of Collectables After the Flood (Lismore): Please No Alligators II,&nbsp;2026, digital mini print on Hahnemuhle bamboo paper behind water colour pigment, water based acrylic binder and 50 strands of the artist's hair, 47 x 33cm. A salvaged 35mm film cell depicts an alligator, taxidermied, its status and location are unclear. The animal appears both trophy and specimen: preserved, displaced, suspended between threat and decoration. An Ark-adjacent figure: absent from biblical inventory yet evolutionarily equipped for a flood. The work draws on the writing of Val Plumwood, who survived a 1985 crocodile attack in Kakadu during which approximately one third of her body was mauled. Rather than framing the event as aberration, Plumwood described the encounter as a confrontation with human exceptionalism—an abrupt recognition of herself as food within a broader ecological order. Strands of the artist’s hair are trapped between image and glass, inserting bodily trace into the frame. The gesture complicates the trophy logic of the photograph, resisting mastery and instead acknowledging the artist’s position within the food chain.Photos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery ((It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim) Exhibited as part of the solo exhibition (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim at project8 gallery Melbourne February - April 2026 https://jenvalender.com/Inventory-of-Collectables-After-the-Flood-Lismore-Big-Banana Sat, 08 Aug 2026 07:31:33 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Inventory-of-Collectables-After-the-Flood-Lismore-Big-Banana <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2dafef2c067c1f7d5837c679f979254a6ee8059d5b9d2992fb9d11a74be754cf/P8_Jen---Chaohui-034.jpg" data-mid="251076857" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2dafef2c067c1f7d5837c679f979254a6ee8059d5b9d2992fb9d11a74be754cf/P8_Jen---Chaohui-034.jpg" /><img width="1200" height="1600" width_o="1200" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/09693290f9c077c5d3e3dda847f824d8bd0e2d43f57613635de443d861a3a9ab/P8_Jen---Chaohui-032.jpg" data-mid="251076858" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/09693290f9c077c5d3e3dda847f824d8bd0e2d43f57613635de443d861a3a9ab/P8_Jen---Chaohui-032.jpg" /><img width="1200" height="1600" width_o="1200" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8a6efd161a00ca665d4e93e70ae56629b50a34cc344f6c1d839dd45587d08640/P8_Jen---Chaohui-035.jpg" data-mid="251076860" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8a6efd161a00ca665d4e93e70ae56629b50a34cc344f6c1d839dd45587d08640/P8_Jen---Chaohui-035.jpg" />Inventory of Collectables After the Flood (Lismore): Big Banana Righteousness,&nbsp;2026, 16mm film leader over Ilford metallic gloss print, 84.1 x 59.4cm Sourced from a salvaged 35mm film cell, this image depicts the self-proclaimed “Big Banana” at a water park in Coffs Harbour. Scanned and enlarged, the image of this roadside icon becomes less novelty, more vessel. Unlike the paired logic of the Ark, this banana stands alone. It reads as surrogate boat, an improbable vessel of salvation embedded within leisure culture. Affixed to the frame, black 16mm film leader spills downward, suggesting falling water. Blank yet anticipatory, the film leader signals both cinematic promise and narrative delay; the pause before projection, before impact. Film here functions as both evidence and prophecy: a medium through which stories of disaster and redemption circulate. Photos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery ((It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim) Exhibited as part of the solo exhibition (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim at project8 gallery Melbourne <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/50fe4bd8909db5f3a2d8254612e79a8273c1fb30a74e9c88b8bd6515adb55531/P8_Jen---Chaohui-033.jpg" data-mid="251076859" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/50fe4bd8909db5f3a2d8254612e79a8273c1fb30a74e9c88b8bd6515adb55531/P8_Jen---Chaohui-033.jpg" /> February - April 2026 https://jenvalender.com/No-Cats Sat, 08 Aug 2026 14:21:23 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/No-Cats No Cats 2026, mixed media installation including silicone death casts of sphynx cats, rubber tubes and cotton tassle project8 gallery,&nbsp;(It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim&nbsp;<img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1379e6264ef1b6405a9d18bac3b166de351cbc677a14f728cd68fb7fbdb20e4/P8_Jen---Chaohui-039.jpg" data-mid="251080614" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c1379e6264ef1b6405a9d18bac3b166de351cbc677a14f728cd68fb7fbdb20e4/P8_Jen---Chaohui-039.jpg" /> There is no mention of cats in the bible. None. In this work two sphynx cats—adult and kitten—appear adrift on a small raft constructed from rubber tubing and cotton lashing. Cast in silicone from animals that died of natural causes, their bodies are hairless, luminous and faintly abject. The raft suggests both rescue device and makeshift abandonment. The work departs from the biblical Ark by foregrounding an omission: cats are not explicitly named among its passengers. Here they float alone, outside sanctioned salvation. The adult cat bears a blunt message, tattooed across its fragile surface: Everything Sucks. The phrase reads as both adolescent provocation and exhausted expression. Suspended between tenderness and bleakness, the work registers the fatigue of recurring climate emergency and the diminishing credibility of promised rescue. The animals are already gone, yet their forms persist. <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2b8fb239308d137e8a7befe952f80b6dbf8ec12a55dc98492d5ac2f797e17ace/P8_Jen---Chaohui-038.jpg" data-mid="251080616" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2b8fb239308d137e8a7befe952f80b6dbf8ec12a55dc98492d5ac2f797e17ace/P8_Jen---Chaohui-038.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/de944b57621778e8f2b3dc6a3f141f904b6543bbd66acd97568fcb93d0d21b5a/P8_Jen---Chaohui-040.jpg" data-mid="251080615" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/de944b57621778e8f2b3dc6a3f141f904b6543bbd66acd97568fcb93d0d21b5a/P8_Jen---Chaohui-040.jpg" /> <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/553c2e61cc92041c8e7e22b7e701ab15fcdb84f337c11d7d4d761fb26b5c153e/Cat-Gets-A-Tattoo.jpg" data-mid="251080704" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/553c2e61cc92041c8e7e22b7e701ab15fcdb84f337c11d7d4d761fb26b5c153e/Cat-Gets-A-Tattoo.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8c98b270c1aeea49d865fe3c238ef10449b7665b421bb7e196d237c23df9907f/P8_Jen---Chaohui-041.jpg" data-mid="251080617" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8c98b270c1aeea49d865fe3c238ef10449b7665b421bb7e196d237c23df9907f/P8_Jen---Chaohui-041.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1200" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ef0f9b5eb1d242402154624085bc23598e737866a681c691082c715c37dea73/P8_Jen---Chaohui-042.jpg" data-mid="251080618" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8ef0f9b5eb1d242402154624085bc23598e737866a681c691082c715c37dea73/P8_Jen---Chaohui-042.jpg" /> Exhibited as part of the solo exhibition (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim at project8 gallery Melbourne Photos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery ((It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim) February - April 2026 https://jenvalender.com/Cat-Island Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:08:30 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Cat-Island Cat Island Science Gallery Melbourne <img width="2158" height="1138" width_o="2158" height_o="1138" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7467da79a45f0730347610788f2073113d2c530af1c8f3f6ff28f59eae9dece2/Screenshot-2026-08-09-at-2.22.34am.png" data-mid="251082067" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7467da79a45f0730347610788f2073113d2c530af1c8f3f6ff28f59eae9dece2/Screenshot-2026-08-09-at-2.22.34am.png" /> <img width="2150" height="1134" width_o="2150" height_o="1134" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4f591ee54891d9e5ce339f5b01388e8407f06a32a074d54bdd1a33b50946289f/Screenshot-2026-08-09-at-2.24.40am.png" data-mid="251082136" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4f591ee54891d9e5ce339f5b01388e8407f06a32a074d54bdd1a33b50946289f/Screenshot-2026-08-09-at-2.24.40am.png" /> “Cats and the internet are a match made in heaven. Humans could not be more obsessed with our online icons. We scroll through endless cat content, but what does the digital world look like through a cat’s eyes? Watch cats from Ainoshima Island, Japan, fondly called ‘Cat Heaven Island’, view videos of themselves for the first time on digital screens - creating a meme within the cat meme. Strike your best cat pose and flip the lens to experience the same footage in ‘cat vision’. Informed by animal sensory perception research from the Stuart-Fox Lab at the University of Melbourne, tune into a more feline perspective and explore a shared language of curiosity and play.” - Science Gallery MelbourneCat Island is a metameme in which many memes are nested within one epic cat video, featuring 81 videos in simultaneous motion. Although the raw footage spans more than 34 minutes, the exhibition compresses it into a dense, hypnotic loop lasting one minute and 49 seconds. Valender says, “it feels like watching every scene of a film at once: chaotic, immersive and strangely mesmerising.”Read more about the research behind Cat Island on&nbsp;PursuitExhibited as part of the exhibition DISTRACTION at Science Gallery Melbourne, 26 July 2025 – 02 May 2026 &nbsp;<img width="4096" height="2160" width_o="4096" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da5085cfe3ba992cf6127817fc6ad57e8149c90d07939e3180caa3aaa6145641/A001C746_25041981_CANON.00_48_37_00.Still017.jpg" data-mid="251082021" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/da5085cfe3ba992cf6127817fc6ad57e8149c90d07939e3180caa3aaa6145641/A001C746_25041981_CANON.00_48_37_00.Still017.jpg" /><img width="4096" height="2160" width_o="4096" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8991295fd7c511da2176e8ddca060f1d7f9ba98feee8cea8de614b940ac81287/A001C746_25041981_CANON.00_00_53_13.Still029.jpg" data-mid="251082022" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8991295fd7c511da2176e8ddca060f1d7f9ba98feee8cea8de614b940ac81287/A001C746_25041981_CANON.00_00_53_13.Still029.jpg" /> <img width="4096" height="2160" width_o="4096" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c14b137468a428e7a59ae66edc2af3108f0ae402239c3823c8f6f964715106e7/A001C746_25041981_CANON.00_00_14_12.Still035.jpg" data-mid="251082025" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c14b137468a428e7a59ae66edc2af3108f0ae402239c3823c8f6f964715106e7/A001C746_25041981_CANON.00_00_14_12.Still035.jpg" /><img width="2230" height="1212" width_o="2230" height_o="1212" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f0c88457ef1ed0f206772ac13ca99e5f6b15f38d02e502dbe552ab707953afdb/Screenshot-2026-08-09-at-2.22.09am.png" data-mid="251082094" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f0c88457ef1ed0f206772ac13ca99e5f6b15f38d02e502dbe552ab707953afdb/Screenshot-2026-08-09-at-2.22.09am.png" /> July 2025 https://jenvalender.com/Null-is-Not-an-Object Thu, 18 Sep 2025 05:45:59 +0000 Jen Valender https://jenvalender.com/Null-is-Not-an-Object Null is Not an Object&nbsp; Mary Cherry Contemporary 2025 Taking its title from a recurring error message in film editing software Adobe Premiere Pro—null is not an object—this solo exhibition meditates on the physical materiality of analogue film, and the thresholds between presence and absence in cinematic experience. &nbsp; <img width="2594" height="3885" width_o="2594" height_o="3885" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee3ca7b8bf0c22a6a916c452d04bcef1d7588c841d968729b7d57356615c1d80/Jen-Valender_Cage-Study-with-Leader-blue_IMG1.jpg" data-mid="238779089" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ee3ca7b8bf0c22a6a916c452d04bcef1d7588c841d968729b7d57356615c1d80/Jen-Valender_Cage-Study-with-Leader-blue_IMG1.jpg" /> <img width="4284" height="5712" width_o="4284" height_o="5712" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42596f18b1277564b39c0ba1fb964110d3bae23b88299d24f0f7f7c9a36882fe/Jen-Valender_Cage-Study-with-Leader-blue_IMG1.jpg" data-mid="238365634" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/42596f18b1277564b39c0ba1fb964110d3bae23b88299d24f0f7f7c9a36882fe/Jen-Valender_Cage-Study-with-Leader-blue_IMG1.jpg" /> Cage Study with Leader (blue), 2025, inkjet print, 16mm film leader.56 x 66 cm (frame) This diptych captures the playful and uncanny rituals of cinema-going, exploring anticipation and spectacle. Both photographs feature a figure wearing a Nic Cage mask, gifted to attendees at the Australian premiere of The Surfer (2024) at the Astor Cinema, where the entire audience participated in a moment of collective performance. The protruding 16mm blue film leader extends from the prints like a curtain, evoking both the physical mechanics of projection and the theatrical anticipation of the screen. In one work, the leader cascades across the image like a draped curtain, shrouding the masked figure and suspending this moment of cinematic spectacle. <img width="3765" height="2514" width_o="3765" height_o="2514" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/421e8e0c01d7f33dcc2ad884b44b8bab822becda0f6bd6de0726acfd5b448e83/Jen-Valender_Mirror-Mirror_Intervals-in-Gold_IMG1.jpg" data-mid="238365639" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/421e8e0c01d7f33dcc2ad884b44b8bab822becda0f6bd6de0726acfd5b448e83/Jen-Valender_Mirror-Mirror_Intervals-in-Gold_IMG1.jpg" /> <img width="3926" height="2944" width_o="3926" height_o="2944" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8549b8330ec90cf8ae624a6032196d5b90504d1ad47d9454b246321c8c912dfc/IMG_2020-copy-2.jpg" data-mid="238365640" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8549b8330ec90cf8ae624a6032196d5b90504d1ad47d9454b246321c8c912dfc/IMG_2020-copy-2.jpg" /> Mirror Mirror: Intervals in Gold, 2025, antique gold mirror acrylic, 35mm film leader (yellow)90.5 x 120 cm (mirror) In Mirror Mirror: Intervals in Gold, Valender transforms the peripheries of cinema into moments of reflection and reverie. Yellow 35mm film leader drapes across panels of antique gold mirror acrylic, cascading like molten gold or honey, shimmering with the opulence of old Hollywood. The works are at once minimalist and sumptuous: surfaces catch the light, inviting the viewer to see themselves within the folds of the material, to inhabit a space where anticipation, memory and reflection converge. Empty frames of film leader hold their promise quietly, hinting at stories that never fully arrive. These luminous panels ask us to linger, to consider the poetry of pause, the material traces of cinematic spectacle and the intimate interplay between audience, object and light. <img width="4318" height="2883" width_o="4318" height_o="2883" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a1ff0e518b549376090f616e9e43d069f678cbd95e2a461e2207b21584cee2be/Jen-Valender_Pink-Intermissions_IMG1.jpg" data-mid="238365810" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a1ff0e518b549376090f616e9e43d069f678cbd95e2a461e2207b21584cee2be/Jen-Valender_Pink-Intermissions_IMG1.jpg" /> <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f6a00044c59bb303e639e8c7b5365c16725ada3f00e1433949c90ef984bb78d/Jen-Valender_Pink-Intermissions_Detail-Shot.jpg" data-mid="238365814" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f6a00044c59bb303e639e8c7b5365c16725ada3f00e1433949c90ef984bb78d/Jen-Valender_Pink-Intermissions_Detail-Shot.jpg" /> <img width="4016" height="6016" width_o="4016" height_o="6016" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8c4d9135f2fe6daa6c6c9023e20167faef9418f710124a4532b48188443c8485/Jen-Valender_Pink-Intermissions_Detail-2.jpg" data-mid="238365811" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8c4d9135f2fe6daa6c6c9023e20167faef9418f710124a4532b48188443c8485/Jen-Valender_Pink-Intermissions_Detail-2.jpg" /> Pink Intermissions, 2025, vintage 35mm cinema film trailers (1970s), glass panels, fringing. 39 x 31 cm (frame), 138 x 31 cm (with fringing) This collection of collaged film works draw on the material and cultural residue of cinema. Each piece is constructed from vintage 1970s 35mm cinema advertisements, cut frame by frame and arranged between panes of glass, set within black wooden frames adorned with fringing. The use of pink-toned celluloid lends the works a spectral quality, both nostalgic and uncanny, where promotional fragments of a bygone cinema era are suspended in fragile mosaics. Placed on the gallery’s windowsill, the works harness shifting natural light as a secondary medium. Throughout the day, the collaged frames glow and project their shadows across the gallery walls, echoing the ephemeral mechanics of projection itself. What once functioned as peripheral material—pre-show trailers, intermission ads—now occupies centre stage, transformed into sculptural light catchers that embody cinema’s ghostly architectures. The fringed frames introduce a touch of the ornamental, aligning with the cinema advertisements they encase; both devices of allure, crafted to entice and seduce. The fringing also evokes the ceremonial sweep of cinema and stage curtains, framing each collage as a miniature theatre where light and shadow perform. Together, these elements operate as residues of spectacle, remnants lingering as ghostly traces, inviting viewers to inhabit the thresholds between memory, materiality and the fleeting drama of the cinematic experience. <img width="2880" height="3600" width_o="2880" height_o="3600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fceaaa3c14d9017b45d03950602173d09ba02919d6ade218664c732b21f5736b/Jen-Valender_Deaf-Pixels_Installation-Shot_IMG1.jpg" data-mid="238365815" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fceaaa3c14d9017b45d03950602173d09ba02919d6ade218664c732b21f5736b/Jen-Valender_Deaf-Pixels_Installation-Shot_IMG1.jpg" /> <img width="2322" height="1680" width_o="2322" height_o="1680" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d99fd57da5be5584b0c3fd36e5a0487dbe71ffd6102e5181d884a218c31b5d4e/Jen-Valender_Deaf-Pixels_Still-Image_1.png" data-mid="238365817" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d99fd57da5be5584b0c3fd36e5a0487dbe71ffd6102e5181d884a218c31b5d4e/Jen-Valender_Deaf-Pixels_Still-Image_1.png" /> Deaf Pixels, 2021, 5min30sec, single channel projection. Drawing on Valender’s experience as a cinema projectionist in New Zealand, where economic necessity meant working long hours and balancing multiple jobs, this work reflects on the tension between cinematic fantasy and lived reality. While projecting films that celebrated the opulence of love, adventure and promise, Valender navigated the modest possibilities of life in a rural town. Deaf Pixels transforms these experiences into a patchwork of projected imagery, where the glow of analogue film and digital pixels becomes a metaphor for longing, absence and the contrasts between aspiration and circumstance. <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a9c8d8ad31665236cc56057121fe047e319cb5d013189f8e735685334a432ce/Jen-Valender_Null-is-Not-an-Object_Installation-View.jpg" data-mid="238365816" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a9c8d8ad31665236cc56057121fe047e319cb5d013189f8e735685334a432ce/Jen-Valender_Null-is-Not-an-Object_Installation-View.jpg" /> "I think the two things that make this show special for me are the use of the film leader and natural light. Film leader has a poetic quality of anticipation, like an orchestra tuning up, where the potential experience to follow it is unknown and infinite. The suspension of this feeling in the artwork was the starting point for this show. As was implementing natural light, where the experience of the artworks installed on the windowsill change throughout the day and with the weather. On a brilliant sunny afternoon shades of raspberry, from the Pink Intermissions series, are cast across the gallery walls. As I was creating the works I kept thinking about the different definitions of “projection"—to project light; to protrude physically; to capture a psychological projection—and how they could be embedded in the work." Jen Valender, Lowbrow review. &nbsp;&nbsp; September, 2025