Hi, I'm Anna Jalanski.
My pronouns are she/her.
I am an artist with autism spectrum disorder, I live and work in Djilang/Geelong. My autism influences the way I live in this world and how I work as an artist. I have always had a very deep interest and experimentation with the role of everyday objects, either brought, picked or found. Making art is a way for me to connect with other artists, share my visual and textural thinking, be part of community art groups and advocate for myself and artists on the spectrum.
Currently I am member and participant of local Geelong art groups such as the House Geelong, Print Cult and Anti-Fragile a mental health and art support group.
I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Spatial Practice at the Victorian Collage of the Arts in 2020. Since finishing, I have been in multiple group shows around the city of Narrm/Melbourne and Djilang/Geelong. I also participated in the National Graduate show, ‘Hatched’ 2021, Perth institute of Contemporary Arts. I have worked as a front of house staff member for Platform Arts Geelong and Geelong Arts Centre, volunteered at Geelong Gallery and making a new body of work towards a solo show.
In my practice I make sculpture, interactive works, drawings, text and video works. I use everyday objects to create uncanny relationships that focus on texture, tone and shape.
My current themes include bodily forms such as hair follicles and exploration of products used for personal grooming, creating grids and hook-like forms, observing structures in home and local spaces, exploring food items both real and artificial and collection of my name both written and typed on various material. I am working on expanding my techniques in cross-stitch, textiles, clay, casting in plastics, assemblage, printmaking and wood/metal working to reflect on my current art projects.
I collect things that are found at home, suburban streets, supermarkets and in second hand stores. When I encounter an object, it must offer an initial excitement- something charming about its gaze, its glowing details or its humour that releases a smile. I work in an impulsive and intuitive manner. By honing in on an object’s material qualities and elaborating on what I find, I allow the form to undergo a series of transformations till it achieves a sense of autonomy. This process begins with choosing a complimentary pattern or mood which makes sense to the object’s formal rhythm. I want to give something back to the object itself, by responding to it in its own language. A form is complete when it can speak with its own voice and hold its own space, this is when I watch how it interacts with its surroundings.
Because learning a work can only come about through caring for it, my love for art continues to grow with each object I meet. With tenderness and commitment, I help objects to flourish as they are, letting them live and move beyond me and into the world.
you are welcome to request to follow me and my arts practice on instagram :) and if you have any questions, opportunites or comments, thank you
@jalanskianna
I acknowledge the Wadawurrung, Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations on whose country in which I work and live on. And I pay respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I acknowledge First Nations Sovereignty and that sovereignty has never been ceded.
Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.