Dixon
Goddess of Disappointment
Painting
2016
Sarah Dixon, born in London and raised in Cyprus and the UAE, is a socially-engaged multi-disciplinary artist currently based in Stroud, UK. Her work explores participatory art making, ritual and symbolic magic as well as painting as a dialogue with Earth. Her works explore new ways of relating, and democratising cultural creation. A polymath, she draws on a wide experience: with a degree in Biology from UCL, she has worked in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Hindu Kush, and has studied art forms from Orthodox icon painting to Corporate Design.
She is a co-founder of The Women’s Art Activation System (WAAS), making performance art and creative activations for people in pregnancy and reproductive carers. The Bureau for the Validation of Art and The Baby Makers, Agony Arts and Permission Slips are works of the WAAS.
Her work has been shown at the ICA, Oblong Gallery, QUAD Derby, SkyTV, and on a cyberbus in Moscow, amongst other places. She has been shortlisted for a Jerwood Bursary Award and selected for several awards including to create a Phone Box Art Show, performing in New York Grace Exhibition Space, to be a Social ARTery Pioneer, and a residency with UNIDEE in Biella, Italy (via Zoom). She is the creator of 100 Goddesses, a painting installation that immerses visitors in a colourful world of feminine power.
“My practice explores a wide range of contemporary and traditional materials and methods. Through these diverse media I seek to appropriate, investigate, and unpack accepted norms, rituals and symbols from cultural locations: including business, bureaucracy, shamanism, religion, social media, and crafts.
Referencing evolution, in which accumulations of small amounts of work add up to a greater whole, these are often collaborative and participatory works. Feminism, motherhood, humanity’s relationship with nature, and how power is enforced through symbolism and ritual, are key areas of interest.”
