Sarah Berners – Anesthesia

Sarah Berners invites you to Anesthesia—a theatrical response to being without sensation.

An integration and communion of models and materials, Anesthesia seeks to diagnose and explore the playful yet paralytic state between procrastination and productivity.

Sarah Berners is a multi disciplinary artist specialising in the use of soft sculpture and photography to explore fetishistic relationships between figure and form.

Drawing influence from the worlds of architecture, fashion design and science fiction, she presents sculptures as both three dimensional structures and frozen within a photographic frame. Often resembling uncanny corporeal fragments and assemblages, Berners creates a discourse surrounding the body as a topic of fracture, enclosure and transformation.

Melbourne based Berners graduated with a BFA (Painting) from RMIT University in 2006 before going on to complete her BFA (Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts. In 2009 she was awarded the Henry James Williams Scholarship to undertake her Master of Fine Arts (by Research) at the VCA. Berners has exhibited work extensively throughout

Australia at galleries such as KINGS A.R.I, Anna Pappas, Lindberg Contemporary and the Queensland Centre for Photography.

Berners is a recipient of numerous awards and grants including the National Gallery of Victoria’s Trustees Award (2007), Vulcan Steel Art Award (2010), Australia Council ArtStart Grant (2010) and the Australia Council New Work Grant (2012). In 2014 she undertook two international residencies— one at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and the other at the Australia Council Tokyo Studio. More recently, Berners returned to Paris in 2023 to undertake a second residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts.

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