Project Rooms, Melbourne Art Fair 2026

Raking leaves from gravel

Bena Jackson

19/2/26 - 22/2/26

Borrowing details from a medieval château and the inner city gutter alike, Raking leaves from gravel takes the form of an imagined streetscape. Through a practice led by walking, observing, and documenting, Bena Jackson collects evidence of agency, ingenuity, and cumulative changes within our urban spaces to inform her sculptures. Her processes develop textures and patinas that recall repetitions of pedestrian life, evidence of adaptation, and acts of care and maintenance.

As Aotearoa New Zealand’s young urban centres are faced with the evidence of critical underinvestment in infrastructure, this project considers what it means, and what it takes, for materials and forms to last over time.

___

Bena Jackson is an artist from Aotearoa based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Using largely salvaged and industrial materials, she references and remodels observations from our urban environments, considering the clash between top-down urbanism and the everyday realities of communities using and sharing space.

Bena was the recipient of the 2022 Collin Post Memorial Scholarship, and the 2023 Iris Fischer Scholarship . Recent exhibitions include Urban Legend (2024) at Te Tuhi in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Here We All Are (2023) at The Engine Room in Te Whānganui‑a‑Tara Wellington, Castle Mall (2023) at RM Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau and Camera Phone (2021) at play_station space in Te Whānganui‑a‑Tara.