SALLY HOOK | THE MODELS
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 - Sunday, February 22, 2026
Frances Keevil at Studio W - 6 Bourke St, Woolloomooloo Wed - Sun, 11 - 5
JOIN THE ARTIST ON THURSDAY 12 FEBRUARY, 5 - 7PM
THE MODELS
Occasionally I use cutouts of colours and textures in random shapes put together in forms that are instinctive, not preplanned. In this way, old themes and subjects are replaced by new and dynamic images. The use of a tattered old fashion magazine with its beautiful model faces were the source of my plagiarism. The forms that arrived were new to my practice, enticing and challenging but oh so delectable.
Through the process of bringing these forms into physical reality, many changes and adjustments were made to fit into my sense of design for balance, colour and texture. Extravagances were toned down, elements added or changed. In truth, the final works look only vaguely like the original designs - cut and pasted randomly but with my instinct for design.
As the shapes and resolution of each evolved, so too the underlying connections I found to my own life, perhaps a set of unconscious realizations of each, that made them my own statements.
As an artist, I am always moving towards new realms of expression, the unfolding of my own psyche a constant surprise but we are all little universes of experience, conscious of every moment and what these mean to us.
The models’ faces are the elements that link these works. Human beauty is never wasted and always should be – exulted in art.
Sally Hook
Cherbourg Marjorette
white clay, terracotta, clear flat glaze fired to 1100°C
70 cm tall
Memories of marching groups, white boots, red or blue satin jackets, silver or white epaulettes. Childhood wonder at these resplendent girls, hometown show days, bronco busters, sideshow alleys, a fistful of coins.
- And indigenous success, marching across 60s Australia.
Sally Hook
Forester
multiple clay types, oxides, glaze, fired to 1100 degrees C
70 cm tall
It is our privilege to experience the wilds still existing along the eastern coast of Australia, within forests holding tenuously when left alone
Identifying with the place where I live, the hooting of owls could be the most poignant of night sounds that I will protect with all in my power.
Sally Hook
Boot Scootin' Venus
white stoneware clay, clear glaze, fired to 1100°C, overglaze gold lustre, enamels, semi-precious stones, costume jewellery.
50 cm tall x 30 cm deep x 20 cm wide
The archetype Venus – the Woman – here portrayed as an American western bordello queen, saloon seductress, seducer and femme fatale.
She is also a sister and guide, feminist and ‘arch-defender of her gender’. Venus is feisty, fruity, frivolous, fulsome and fights like hell.
This portrayal is an exercise in describing women to other women, a kind of exultation of what it is to be ‘us’.