Sandra’s art practice crosses derided forms of craft such as découpage and quilting with political argumentation. It builds on her previous career as an academic in the architectural humanities researching subjects such as interspecies architectures, feminism, and the design of spaces of science. Trained in drawing and painting at a selective visual arts high school in Western Australia she took art history courses throughout her architectural education culminating in a doctorate on Serialism in Art, Music and Architecture from Monash University. This background continues to be relevant, enabling a dialogue between ideas, mark making and the found image. Today she manually reconstructs, revises and augments images from thrifted illustrated dictionaries, children’s encyclopaedias, travel guides, and art history publications from the period 1930-1980. For longevity, each work is digitally scanned and photographically printed. Her work has been featured in Paradiso magazine and exhibited in Sydney, Singapore, Perth and Byron Bay.
Sandra holds Bachelor and Master of Architecture qualifications from the University of Western Australia, and a degree in Women’s Studies from Murdoch University. She has written numerous reviews of art exhibitions and architectural projects for the design press, and has co-authored two books for MIT Press, LabOratory (2019) and Laboratory Lifestyles (2018). She is Emeritus Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Queensland where she was previously Head of School, before relocating in 2021 to Upper Coopers Creek in Bundjalong country. Her house and studio, shared with architecture office Possible Studio, literally straddles Byron and Lismore shires.
Byron Shire
