Artworks

Amba Sayal-Bennett 

Manifesting as three interconnected lines of enquiry: two-dimensional drawing, projection and sculptural installation, Amba Sayal Bennett’s practice explores performative dynamics within human and non-human assemblages. Her recent work focuses on instruments of measurement, from astrolabes, compass, to Jantar Mantars. These curious, ancient, other-worldly calculating machines enabled the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye through an assemblage of measuring device, celestial and human bodies. An instrument is a human and non-human assemblage, a system created by the body working in conjunction with a material structure or object. Within Sayal-Bennett’s studio practice, whether she is using a plastic drawing stencil in her works on paper, or three-dimensional computer modelling software such as Rhino, she is interested in how instruments, apparatus and materials have agency.

Amba Sayal-Bennett (b.1991) lives and works in London. She received her BFA from Oxford University and her MA in The History of Art from The Courtauld Institute. She was awarded her PhD in Art Practice and Learning from Goldsmiths and has published her practice-based research with Tate Papers. Amba is a co-founder of Cypher Billboard, an artist-run public program of site-specific billboard artworks and off-site projects based in London. She is currently an Associate Lecturer in Visual Culture at UWE Bristol. Select solo exhibitions include:  A Mechanised Thought, indigo+madder, London (2020); Every Line Makes a Cut, Carbon12, Dubai (2019); Diffraction Metis, Yve Yang Gallery, Boston (2016); and Deft Nodes, Lundgren Gallery, Palma de Mallorca (2016). Select group exhibitions include: Modern Relics, FOLD, London (2022); Tomorrow 2021, White Cube, London (2021); 5th Edition, Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Slough (2021); Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London (2021); ABSINTHE §2, Collective Ending, London (2019); Espacio, Luz y Orden, José de la Fuente, Santander (2019); A World In Vertigo, Brunel Museum, London (2019); As You Become, Exhibit 320, Delhi (2018); ROYGBIV, Kate Werble Gallery, New York (2018); and Old Rope, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2014).