“As a young child, you would regularly hear me break a long silence with “Remember when…” and go on to tell a short story about something that had happened years before. I was always reviewing my memories, as if they held some clue to why they had occurred. I still am.
My work grows out of that habit. It explores psychology, memory and time, and how they shape who we are, how we live together, and the land we live on. Repetition has always been my main tool. It shows up in the number of objects I make and in the repeated motions it takes to make each one: intensive, intentional, meditative work that creates a quietness while stirring up dust. My sculptures borrow from biological growth and from architecture at the same time, because the built world and the natural one have never really been separate. Our memories become the ghost of time passed, of once was, of never again.
Over the years, my “remember when” has grown to include other people. Growing up between Lake and Sonoma Counties taught me that places hold memory too, through fire, hardship, rebuilding and belonging. My work has moved from the studio into public space: from workshops where young people imagined the future of their city, to tables where strangers sit down to talk.
Lately I think of my work as a series of invitations: to play, to look inward, to connect. I make the forms and set the table, and the people who show up finish the work. Each of them brings their own memories, and something new comes out of the meeting.”
About
Briona Hendren is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is an ongoing exploration of psychology, memory and time, as it relates to identity, society and nature.
Through the use of repetition, sculpture, site specific interventions, printmaking and performance, she dives into biomorphic architectural re-imaginations of memory by unearthing entangled patterns of personal narratives.
Briona received her BFA in Sculpture and Museum & Gallery Methods from Sonoma State University. In addition to her art practice, Briona is the Curator for the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation, Operations Manager for the Pacific Rim Sculptors, as well as the Metal Arts Director for Chimera Arts & Makerspace.
Her work has been on view throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and internationally. Her work can be seen at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, (Santa Rosa, CA), Pepperwood Preserve (Santa Rosa, CA), Ives Park (Sebastopol, CA) , and SOMO Village (Rohnert Park, CA).
Recently, Briona completed a collaborative interactive art installation commissioned by the City of Santa Rosa through Kimzin Creative and the “A Future Worth Planning For” project; Journey to the Future is a social art project as a part of the city’s 30-year strategic plan (the General Plan Update) focusing on the dreams of Santa Rosa youth as they were asked to envision the possibilities of the city they call home in the year 2050. With data collected through world building workshops facilitated by Briona and artist Erika Lutz, voices of SR youth are heard and their visions will be directly implemented into the city’s 30yr strategic plan.
Notably, Briona was one of five selected artists to receive a $30,000 grant from the Pa’lante Artist Grant Program. This grant was made possible with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and programmatic partnership with the Center for Cultural Innovation. The Pa’lante Artist Grant Program is a community-led grant initiative of LA ASAMBLEA, a new collective by/for Sonoma County BIPOC & QUEER artists + co-conspirators, collaboratively led by consultant groups Kimzin Creative, On the Margins, and the Asesores( a group of diverse, local arts and culture workers).
Briona continues to work on a number of private commissions, developing a traveling foundry (more to be told soon on this!), as well as building out her new shop and studio space in south Santa Rosa,CA.