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Post-Grad Portraits: Sarah Jane Hender

Written byPost-Grad Community
Published date 17 January 2024

A series of interviews with alumni from across UAL, Post-Grad Portraits is a chance to highlight the achievements of postgrads from the last decade. Post-Grad Portraits is part of our celebration of Post-Grad Community's 10 year anniversary.

Sarah Jane Hender

PG Diploma Fine Art, Chelsea College of Arts Fine Art PG Diploma (2012) and currently in the final year of the online MA Fine Art Digital Central Saint Martins.

Hello Sarah Jane! Could you introduce yourself?

Hi there, my name is Sarah Jane Hender. I graduated from Chelsea College of Arts in 2012 with a Fine Art postgradute diploma. I'm originally from Bournemouth and moved back to Dorset with my whole family in 2015. But at that time, I was living in East London.

Tell us about what you do now.

I'm currently in my final year of the online Central Saint Martins MA Fine Art Digital course. It is a remote online course allowing me to continue with home-educating my 10-year-old son.

abstract sculpture — **Sarah Jane Hender,** **Cathy Cake 2011, Sarah Jane Hender**

What's your proudest moment?

Being a mother makes you question what's most important: your work is very much secondary to motherhood and family life in general. I would easily say my proudest moment was becoming a mother and my best creation yet.

What’s your biggest strength?

My biggest strength, it's funny, I would never see my strengths, only all my weaknesses, but as time has passed, I now realise my ability to be super flexible and my adaptability with my practice has always been kind of like my superpower. My practice has transitioned from a multidisciplinary vantage point, but sculpture used to be my primary visual language. However, due to space restrictions and the lack of a studio to continue my sculptural practice, I had to adapt if I wanted to continue doing work. I found myself needing to reclaim my practice when my son was around six, but it was incredibly hard to begin, let alone say aloud that I’m an artist. It took sheer perseverance, some inner belief to continue, and the support from my family. So, instead of sculpture, I paint and make films either in the hub of the kitchen-living room or, late at night, I edit my films using my iPhone.

What's your biggest weakness?

My biggest weakness is losing site of my capabilities and allowing self-doubt to seep in. I used to suffer from impostor syndrome to such a grand scale, leading to destructive thought patterns, thinking you are the only one who suffers from it, but then I realised later on down the line that everyone feels this in varying degrees.

painting of a figure — **Sarah Jane Hender,** **Am I a Real Woman, 2023, Sarah Jane Hender**

portrait painting — **Sarah Jane Hender,** **I didn't ask for it, Sarah Jane Hender, 2023**

What's the most significant learning experience you've had?

There are several things -

Firstly, it’s okay to have ambition but still be realistic. If I restrict myself to only wanting to make the perfect realisation of an idea, I’m setting myself up for disappointment and frustration. But on the flip side, when I can fulfil my ideas, I go for it!

Don’t allow limitations stop the process of making or being creative, e.g. not having a studio or spare room to work in. I have worked in all sorts of environments, one being in a cramped bedroom; I managed to make a 4-foot Snoopy, a 6-foot soft public sculpture, and over 100 soft woollen cats for a public intervention in Hoxton Square.

Having a gallery isn’t all that it seems. Many artists are the last to receive the money they have earned through their own work.

Be as flexible as possible.

Think outside the box.

Don’t allow Instagram or social media to consume you. I haven’t, but I’ve seen it happen.

Success can be anything; my success is having a life balance and moments of well-being, which are critical for me.

What's your favourite artwork?

There are several key moments when an artist has ignited, inspired, or reminded me why I wanted to be an artist in the first place. In the early stages of my education, Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy's ideas oscillated from one thing to the next; their aesthetics have always resonated. For some time, I began focusing on female artists, Anna Mendieta’s Untitled ‘Rape Scene’ (1974), I wouldn’t say is my favourite, but on first seeing the documentation of the performance, it physically struck me to my core and had a lasting effect on my current work ever since. My taste fluctuates from Goya's black paintings to contemporary artists, such as Catherine Mulligan. For an artist to get my attention, the work needs to meet me head-on rather than sit passively and go beyond the surface. An artist who has been a consistent inspiration is my partner Sam Jackson; one painting I always come back to from memory is ‘Race’ 2007; it made me realise what painting can really do: Kick you in the guts; from then on, I’ve tried to emulate that same emotion.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

This is a tricky question; I tend to live day to day rather than project forward; anything can happen between now and then. I also believe in being as open to possibilities as possible, and ten years is a long time, the same age as my son. I want to keep that tenacity and the desire to make work. It's almost too scary to look ahead, to be honest.

Where can people find out more about your work?

You can find my work on my Instagram @sarahjanehender. In February, I am in a group show called Dawn Blossoms plucked at Dusk at The Bear, London. January, WYF, @thismustbenoplace at Safehouse, Peckham. CSM for my final show in June.