Aotearoa born, Naarm Melbourne-based artist Jen Valender works with moving image and performance to express her interest in human experience and coexistence. She is inspired by wit, sincerity, material and historical conditions, cross-cultural exchange, conceptual paradoxes, and ethical positions colliding.

Grounded in the cinematic, Jen’s work cross-pollinates with a range of approaches and mediums such as installation, sound, sculpture, and performative encounters. She connects reflexivity with materiality by experimenting with “projection” through its different definitions, linking the optical understanding of projection installation with psychological projection, and encourages a resolute blurring of the art/life dichotomy.

Jen participated in the inaugural Artist-In-Residence program and was mentored by Yandell Walton. As part of the residency, Jen exhibited work in LIGHT WINDOWS, a project presented in collaboration with New York's HoloCentre, and the Gertrude Street Projection Festival.