Jill Sorensen

Jill’s approach to art is playful and provocative; she suggests that art is essentially a convention of ways in which to cheat and lie. A system of pretence, artifice and construction, and as such provides a particularly useful tool for prodding at the constructions of meaning that we are encouraged to accept as reality.

Born in Thames, Jill Sorensen completed her Post-Graduate Diploma at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1995, after gaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales. In 2002, she received a Master of Fine Arts with 1st Class Honours from Elam. 

Jill's approach to art is playful and provocative; she suggests that art is essentially a convention of ways in which to cheat and lie. A system of pretence, artifice and construction, and as such provides a particularly useful tool for prodding at the constructions of meaning that we are encouraged to accept as reality. Drawing occupies a pivotal role in her practice; she considers it a tool by which to investigate two fundamental functions of the brain - thinking, which is inevitably somewhat related to responsibility and so, tenuously, to the notion of truth. And not thinking which, by nature, is free from responsibility and the restrictions of both truth and untruth. In her practice the left-hand (her contra-hand) does the drawing and reaches (unthinkingly) into the untamed territory of the subconscious to generate irresponsible, unpredictable imagery. The right-hand, being the (thinking) voice of reason, takes the critical role of translation, selection and repositioning.

Aside from working as an artist, Jill is a tutor at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design and has been nominated as a finalist in major NZ art awards such as the James Wallace Art awards, Telecom Art awards, Waikato Art awards and the Norsewear NZ Contemporary Art Awards.

  Back to top