Sarah Gürsoy-Heuser is an artist and educator living in London, UK.
Her practice explores ideas of national identity, collective memory, and how land and borders become central sites for tension. She uses landscape as subject matter, fragments of text to suggest ideas of place/time and provoke a sense of foreboding and unease. The works hint at current news, the Brexit process as it unfolds while displaying a rise of nationalism. The land carries memory, personal and collective. She draws connections from deep within the past to pressing issues of today.
There is an intricate relationship between the theories around memory and how my practice addresses these issues through the processes of making. The form becomes content. The way the materials have been manipulated and created the fragmentary nature of my images, relate to the idea of how memory is fractured. Visuals are developed through different printmaking techniques at different stages. And by ‘landing' on the paper, information is transmitted. Some information is lost; other information is carried through to the final outcome, e.g. an etching line appears on the wood-cut. The loss of information on the surface creates fragmentation, interruptions, and the possibility of ambiguity. Memory is not static. It is organic. It changes, and it can be manipulated. “I am not choreographing the direction of the practical. I appreciate the ruins and the absences.”
EDUCATION
2019 - MA Visual Arts: Printmaking, Camberwell College UAL, London
2017 - Art Award Advisor – Trinity College London
2003 - BA Fashion Print, Central Saint Martins, UAL, London
1994 - BA Japanese Studies, Universität Hamburg, Germany
TEACHING
2008-Present - Printmaking Teacher at Lewisham School of Art and Design, London
2019-Present - Printmaking Course Leader at Xylon Werkstätte, Germany
2010- Present - Studio Co-ordinator, at Catford Printmaking Club, London
EXHIBITIONS
2019 November - Woolwich Contemporary Print Show
2019 October-November - cARTon Catford 9th Live
2019 September - National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery
2019 July-August - Camberwell Select at Camberwell Space
2019 July - MA Visual Arts Summer Show, Camberwell College of Arts
2019 June-August - RA Summer Show, Royal Academy
2019 March - The Crypt Gallery, London: Take Back Control
2019 March - 4 Corners Gallery, London: On the Cusp
2019 February - Skylark, London: Featured Artist
2019 January - Lumberjack, Camberwell: On Common Ground
2018 November - UAL Camberwell College: MA Printmaking Group Exhibition
2018 July - UAL Camberwell College: MA Visual Arts Interim Exhibition
2017 October - West Greenwich Library, London
2015 December - Open Cube, London
Open Studio: Brockley Open, Lee Green Open Studio, Catford Arts Trail and EKOH
REPRESENTATION
University of the Arts Collection, London College of Communication.