Spewtiful 

Ali Sanderson 

A kind of offbeat, audiovisual family portrait, Ali Sanderson’s exhibition Spewtiful evoked humour, sentimentality, absurdity and melancholic reflection - often simultaneously. A large video projection revealed a resplendently kitsch beach sunset, against which images of a young man and woman would fade in and out, miming the lyrics to an old-time musical number. In fact, the young couple are Sanderson and her boyfriend Ben; and the music is played and performed by Ben’s parents, who are former amateur theatre players. Combined with a geometric wall painting and a small video of the artist's father performing a rather unconventional Christmas dance at their family home, the exhibition raised discussions around family, domesticity, art-historical discourse, everyday life, portraiture and intergenerational relationships.

Ali Sanderson completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture) at the VCA in 1999. Recent solo exhibitions, presented in collaboration with Natalie Thomas as part of the nat&ali project include not only but also, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane 2005; nat&ali present the Artbar, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne 2003. Selected group exhibitions include Place and Space: ISAKA, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth 2005; Next Wave Festival Alumni Exhibition, Bus Gallery, Melbourne 2005; 2004: Australian Culture Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2004 and Primavera 2002, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 2002. In 2004 Ali was recipient of both the Australia Council's studio residency in Milan, Italy and the IASKA International Artspace residency at Kelleberrin in Western Australia with Natalie Thomas.