Valerie Schönjahn

Valerie Schönjahn is an artist based in Walyalup, Fremantle. Working across a multitude of media,  Schönjahn’s practice is informed by her emotional and tactile landscape. Her background in architecture and a passion for space, material, domestic storytelling and rituals underpin her artistic practice. Some of her more recent work has centered on exploring ideas of belonging and estrangement, permanence and relationships. Groupings of objects in unfamiliar settings and playing with the traditional and the mythical are continuous fascinations to the artist.

 Schönjahn has been invited to participate in the Minnawarra Art Awards (2021), the Busselton Awards `Showcase´(2020) and was a finalist of the York Botanic Art Prize (2021). In 2021 she created a temporary public art commission for the City of South Perth and undertook a residency with ART ON THE MOVE. She has been part of group exhibitions in both Melbourne and Perth.

FEATURED WORK

2022

Parasite belongs to a series of sculptural works exploring the relationship between different materials and the beauty arising from these unexpected connections. This timber is from a locally grown Pohutukawa tree removed to make way for an infill project. The discarded timber is re-purposed and preserved, using the Japanese tradition of Shou Sugi Ban. Handmade porcelain details seek to inhabit the dark and bare stem. Responding to our local cultural and natural context this cross- cultural mix of techniques, timber and knowledge, highlights possibilities of different elements coming together and their reliance on each other in forging new forms.