Jill Sampson
artist, curator, art project coordinator
Lives in both Brisbane and on family farm near Maidenwell, Queensland, Australia.
Lost mobility from Myeloma, January, 2021, photo R. Sullivan.
Cancer clinic, November, 2021.
Walking again, on the farm, July 2022.
Artist Statement
Through my work I shape stories that are lived and gleaned from the land where I have grown. My work encourages a re-examination of history and explores: environmental themes, both personal and collective histories, land use change and stories. I am a contemporary artist who works across different media and materials that may include collected and found objects, natural materials, textile, sculpture, printmaking and multi-media. These elements of exploration are often brought together into installations where the works intersect with each other and respond to the spaces they inhabit.
I spent my childhood riding horseback across my family’s farm in rural Queensland observing wildlife within the landscape. Now I walk the farm, traversing the hills and valleys with open senses; this feeds into my art practice. I explore the woodland, grasslands and vine scrub where native plants and animals now exist alongside invasive exotic weed species and introduced animals.
I often use objects and materials that provide a temporal connection through history, environment, people and place. Through further research I may uncover cultural, agricultural, historical or scientific information that informs my understanding and which I build into the artwork.
An artwork or project often begins while I’m walking the farm. It may start with thinking on a problem (Bimblebox Art Project), picking up an object (Object series), collecting natural materials in the landscape (Love Letters Project), repurposing man-made objects (Squatters Hopscotch), an event (After the Fire), discarded detritus (This Place, my place) and items used on the farm (Tarp Stories and A roomful of stories: in winter colours).
Disintegration is a theme that often runs through my work. Collaboration with meat ants and a dead rabbit tracked the dismembering of a rabbit as ants carried it piece by piece down into their nest. I transposed the disappearance of the rabbit through drawing onto low plaster plinths, the drawn marks sinking into a substrate of plaster. My installation This Place, my place, explored invasion history through creating a temporal geological and cultural landscape across a wall and floor space using accreted detritus. These material objects are collected remnants of the farm rubbish dump that was in use between 1907 and 1973.
Home for me is a little farm near the Bunya Mountains (Qld), on Kaiabara land, within Wakka Wakka country. My art practice has roots in Arte Povera, Environmental Art and Expressionism. Yet the strongest influence is always the land, light and life-lines of place.
Since 2020, as the effects of climate change grow more evident, I have myself experienced extreme personal change through the effects and treatment of Myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. Treatments have given me ongoing life for an unknown time. This experience of chronic illness has thrown me against my mortality, and I have curiously observed my own cycle of disintegration and recovery. Closely tied to the city during my treatment regime, I am now returning to and caring for the family farm. During winter/spring we continue cool fire burning across areas of the farm, to bring fire back to this environment. I am observing and learning from my Father, as we go. He has attended a cultural burning workshop and we work to bring those practices into this place.
This farm is where I grew up: it is my still point, my place of return. Although I am predominantly of settler/farming heritage, my connection to this place defines me and it is where my art practice is embedded. My own story is just a tiny moment here. Through my work I respond to my lived experience and try to understand and acknowledge the deeper stories and layered histories that are written into the land.
Biography:
Jill Sampson is a contemporary artist. She is also the coordinator of the Bimblebox Art Project and curator of Bimblebox 153 Birds.
Sampson completed a Fine Arts degree at Queensland College of Art in 2019 extending her previous study at the Sydney Gallery School. She was awarded the 2001 Pata Paris residency (France), by Daniel and Anne Pata with the Sydney Gallery School. Sampson was also selected as the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Stewart House Preventorium, where she engaged with the students and created a body of artwork inspired by the beach environment of Curl Curl.
Sampson was a keynote speaker at the Eco Arts Australis 3rd National Conference, Wollongong. She values communication and is a dynamic speaker who has given numerous talks, presentations, interviews and opening speeches. Sampson has also participated in panel discussions, written for publications, and has organised public programs, artist camps and developed two touring exhibitions. Her work has been selected for the Fishers Ghost and JADA art prizes and has toured nationally with JADA and Bimblebox: art – science – nature. Sampson’s work has been featured in newspaper and digital articles as well as Imprint, Artlink and Textile fibre forum magazines.
Selected CV
For a full CV, please message me via the contact form on the Contact page.
Education:
2019
Bachelor of Fine Art, with Distinction (Sculpture), Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith University, Brisbane,Qld., Australia
2018 – 2019
Academic Excellence Award, 2017, 2018, 2019
2003
Statement of Attainment in Advanced Creative Fine Arts, Drawing Specialisation III, Sydney Gallery School, Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE, NSW
2000
Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts, Printmaking major, Sydney Gallery School, NSIT, Meadowbank, NSW.
Curatorial:
2013–present
Bimblebox 153 Birds, developed, curated and manage.
2018–19
Developed the touring package for Bimblebox 153 Birds.
Selected Exhibitions:
2022
moving through time, c.a.s.e. exhibition, Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby, NSW., 16 – 18 December.
2019
Tree Place, curated by Anne Harris, Noosa Regional Gallery, Noosa, Qld., 7 December 2018 – 27January 2019.
2018
Refraction Attraction, QCA Graduate Showcase, Griffith University, Qld., 31 October – 5 November, 2018.
2018
Rights of Nature National Art Exhibition, curated by Jenny Brown, Spring Hill Reservoir, Brisbane, Qld., 22 – 28 October, 2018.
2017
Imaginings, curated by Rona Green, Neospace, Collingwood, Vic., 1 – 19 Dec, 2017.
2015–present
Bimblebox 153 Birds, John Mullins Memorial Art Gallery, Dogwood Crossing, Miles, Qld., 2022; Visitors Centre Gallery, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra 2022; The Centre Beaudesert, Scenic Rim Regional Council 2022; Webb Gallery, QCA, Griffith University, Brisbane, 2019; Gladstone Regional gallery, Gladstone; 2019, Mary Cairncross Rainforest Discovery Centre, Maleny, 2018; Gympie Regional Gallery, 2016; Brisbane Writers Festival, SLQ 2015; Impress Printmakers Gallery, Brisbane, 2015.
2014–2017
Bimblebox: art – science – nature, National touring exhibition (Qld, WA, SA and NSW). 18 May 2014 – 26 March 2017.
2013
Document://Bimblebox, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, Tasmania, 5 – 27 April, 2013.
2008–2009
Bridging, travelling print exchange, Kirkharle Arts Centre, Northumberland, UK., Project Gallery, Qld College of Art, Brisbane, and Hexham’s Queens Hall, Hexham, UK. The Project Gallery date: 23 September – 5 October 2008.
2002–2004
Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award Travelling Exhibition (Qld, NSW, Vic and Tas).
2002
Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA), Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton, NSW., 23 October – 8 December, 2002.
Handwriting, Jill Sampson & Elizabeth Pozega, A-Space on Cleveland, Surry Hills, NSW., 4 – 27 September, 2002.
2000
Sample, A-Space on Cleveland, Surry Hills, NSW., 7 – 18 November 2000.
Trevor was a Chiropodist, But Kevin is the Dancer, Trinity Delmar Gallery, Trinity College, Ashfield, NSW., 9 – 17 September 2000.
1999
Acid, Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW., 30 November – 5 December, 1999.
Awards:
2002 Finalist, Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA), Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton, NSW., 23 October – 8 December, 2002.
2002 Finalist, Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Campbelltown, NSW.
2001 Finalist, Arts North, Hornsby TAFE Art Gallery, Hornsby, NSW., 30 March to 6 April
Residencies:
2016 – 2018
RONA16, AELA Rights of Nature Tribunal, artist in residence program, October 2016 – 2018.
2013
Bimblebox Artist Camp, Bimblebox Nature Refuge, Central Qld. 7–15 September.
2012
Bimblebox Artist Camp, Bimblebox Nature Refuge, Central Qld, 8–17 September.
2001
Pata Paris Residency, Paris, France, awarded by Daniel and Anne Pata, and Sydney Gallery School, 9 September – 7 October.
Stewart House, selected inaugural Artist In Residence, Stewart House Preventorium, Curl Curl, NSW., 4 February – 14 April.
1989
Queensland Rural Youth Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Hosted by Young Farmers clubs across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Sponsored by Queensland Industry Development Corporation (QIDC) and Queensland Rural Youth. 13 April – 8 October.
Selected Presentations:
2019
Sampson, J. “Bimblebox 153 Birds”, Art in the Pub, Contemporary Art Space and Education c-a-s-e and Byron School of Art, Courthouse Hotel, Mullumbimby, NSW, 16 October.
Sampson, J. Keynote speaker, “Bimblebox 153 Birds”, Eco Arts Australis 3rd National Conference, Using the Visual and Performing Arts to encourage pro-environmental behaviour, University of Wollongong, 26 – 28 May.
Sampson, J. (coordinator and chair)with conservation biologist Dr April Reside, poet Brett Dionysius and artist Dr Emma Lindsay. Panel Discussion: A Conversation about the Black-throated Finch. Webb Gallery, QCA, Griffith University, Brisbane, 4 September.
Sampson, J. (Organiser and chair) “Artist Talks and Writers readings for Bimblebox 153 Birds”, QCA, Griffith University, Brisbane, 14 September.
2015–2019
Sampson, J. Curator talks and opening events speaker for Bimblebox 153 Birds.
2016/17
Sampson, J. Guest speaker at opening of Bimblebox: art – science – nature, at Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Manly, Sydney, NSW., 1 July, 2016; At Logan Art Gallery, Logan, Qld., 14 October, 2016; At The Condensery, Somerset Regional Art Gallery, Toogolawah, Qld., 10 February, 2017.
2016
Sampson, J. (Panelist) “At the Interface of Art and Social Action”, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Manly, Sydney, NSW., 3 July.2016
Sampson, J. (Presentation), Bimblebox 153 Birds and the destruction of a forest, Wild/Flower Women symposium, Central Queensland University, Noosa, Qld., 23 November.
Art Project work:
2012–present
Bimblebox Art Project coordinator and Bimblebox Artist Camps coordinator. (Includes developing and coordinating annual artist camps at the Bimblebox Nature Refuge.
2013–present
Bimblebox 153 Birds, curator and coordinator.
2012–2014
Bimblebox: art – science – nature, national touring exhibition, initiator, project developer and part of the team that took my idea to realisation and tour.
Texts and Media
Georgie Cyrillo, ‘It’s our job to take risks’: Artists reflect on the climate crisis October 27 2021, NAVA
Jill Sampson, “Bimblebox 153 Birds – flying under the radar”, chapter 14, Using the visual and performing arts to encourage pro-environmental behaviour, ed. David Curtis, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020.
Erin Semmler, Bimblebox 153 Birds takes aim at Coalmining, ABC Capricornia, 14.3.19
Carol Schwarzman, Tree Place: A Multicultural Collaboration, Polycentrica: notes on culture and collaboration, 13 February, 2019.
Jody McDonald, For the love of Birds, Overland digital journal, 2 September, 2016.
Anne Harris, Is Craft a Dirty Word in Today’s Contemporary Art Scene, Textile Fibre Forum Magazine #123, September, 2016.
Jill Stowell, ART: come to your senses, Newcastle Herald, 13 May, 2016.
Jack Wilkie-Jans, What’s on in Queensland? Bimblebox: art – science – nature, Art & Artists, 20, November, 2016.
Jill Sampson “About Bimblebox Art Project” Bimblebox: art – science – nature, Redland Art Gallery, 2014 ‘Exhibition Catalogue’.
Sampson, Jill. Bimblebox: art – science – nature, Tangible Media, 2014 ‘Digital exhibition catalogue’ (supplied writing, photos and digital videos, coordinated writers and it includes my artwork).
Art captures essence of Bimblebox, Southburnett.com, 24 March, 2014
Sampson J, Bimblebox Art Project, Imprint, Winter 2013, Volume 48, Number 2
Nick Galvan, Alison Clouston’s monstrous artwork against Clive Palmer’s coalmine, SMH, 31 March, 2014
Jill shares tales from Bimblebox Art Project, SouthBurnett.com.au, 17 March, 2014.
Beth Jackson, Bimblebox: Artistic Witness at the Frontline of Queensland’s Galilee Basin, Artlink vol. 33/4, 2013
Brett Dionysious, Bimblebox 153 Birds, Sotto – Australian Poetry, December 2013 (online article, no longer available)
Andrew Beard, Capturing something precious, CQ News, 13 September 2013
K. Calderwood, Bimblebox ‘Such a timeless place’, The Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, 29 September, 2013
Simon Green, Artists Capture Bimblebox Beauty, CQ News, 21 September, 2012
Simon Green, Bimblebox fight takes to canvas, CQ News, 5 September, 2012
Alice Roberts and Paul Robinson, Capturing Bimblebox, 3 September, 2012 (ABC radio interview and digital article)
Profiles, The Isolation Edition, Artworkers Alliance Newsletter, 2006
Academic Research that I’ve participated in as coordinator of Bimblebox Art Project:
2020 – 2022
Andrew Grodecki, QUT, PhD research, A new values-based model of stakeholder engagement in public art-science activity that supports societal transformation. (to address climate change and the environmental emergency).
2016–2018
Andrew Nicholson, “The Depiction of Environment through Art. The role of exhibited environmental art in public engagement with environmental sustainability: a case study of the Bimblebox: art – science – nature exhibition”. Research UNE, 2018.
Professional Membership:
2012–current NAVA, National Association of Visual Artists, Professional Membership
1998–2021 PCA, Print Council of Australia
1996–2011 Artworkers Alliance
Jill Sampson 