At home with: Sanné Mestrom

WHO LIVES IN YOUR HOME? CAN YOU DESCRIBE IT?

Sanné Mestrom (SM)/ In early 2019 our little tribe moved from Melbourne (VIC) to Woodford, Blue Mountains (NSW). We’re a ‘modern family’ household, with both me and my son Danté and his dad Scott living together, with whom I co-parent. People are always curious how we manage this arrangement, but it’s a surprisingly harmonious dynamic. It’s a fairly large house so there’s plenty of room for us to do our own things. On the property I have two studios – one inside, which is for clean work (drawings, maquettes, painting, etc), and another outside where I get to make a glorious mess. The outside studio is a simple, very modest garage, filled to the brim with tools, machines, materials and worksin-progress. Finished works sprawl over the garden and driveway. While my finished works always look fairly stark, the process of creating them involves a wild chaotic mess and for me it’s really important to have a space I don’t need to worry about getting dirty – I work fast and furiously with concrete, resin, plaster and steel and everything gets splattered.

YOU’VE MOVED AROUND A BIT IN YOUR LIFE. DOES IT TAKE LONG TO FEEL ‘AT HOME’ IN A PLACE? HOW DO YOU DO IT?

SM/ Yep, I’ve moved around a lot. We moved from Holland to New Zealand in 1983 when I was a 3 years old, and then I branched off and came to Australia to start art school at RMIT University in 1998. Since coming to Australia I’ve lived in more places than I can count – inner city, regional and rural, across Australia.

“A home is basically a large inhabitable sculpture, so when setting up a house I relate to it in the same way as I would making a work of art.”

In my experience, these many shifts are symptomatic of a kind of rootlessness in me – which I believe comes from being an immigrant: I’ve never felt like I belonged anywhere in particular, and I’m very adaptable to my physical surroundings. As such, home is right where I am, wherever that might be at that particular point in time. In daily-life I like to be mobile, agile and light. I generally move around on my e-scooter with a little bag just big enough to fit my laptop, iPhone, e-book, headphones and charger so that I can work from anywhere at any time – on a train, in a plane, at a café, the bus stop, a park, on a step, absolutely anywhere. I juggle a lot in a day, and every moment is accounted for: as well as being an artist, I’m a full-time academic at Sydney College of the Arts, and of course a mum to a toddler, so there’s never an empty minute in the day.

LEFT: Sanné Mestrom I FLOW / YOU HOOK / THEY CONTINUE, 2021 fibreglass, bronze, steel, stone 160 x 30 x 60 cm Photo credit: Scott M Jackson

Sanné Mestrom in her studio. Photo credit: Scott M Jackson

In spite of my mobility, at home I’m a real nester. I love setting up a house and really settling in. As a sculptor I suppose I have a fairly intuitive sense of form, space, weight and light, and a home is basically a large inhabitable sculpture, so when setting up a house I relate to it in the same way as I would making a work of art. Walking around it for as long as it takes to feel out it’s proportions, watching how the light moves over the course of a few days, and then composing the house as I would an artwork - adding and subtracting elements until it simply works.

EMOTION AND PLACE OFTEN GO HAND IN HAND – WHAT DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU ARE AT HOME? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE OTHERS TO FEEL?

SM/ In spite of the number of times I have moved in my life, I am actually a real homebody. I am an introvert and like a lot of solitude. These days I find quiet-time in the cracks between things, when I’m trail-running in the bush, or working in the studio late at night. Yet in spite of my introvert-ness, much of the week our home is actually very lively – while it’s just the three of us living here, we have managed to build really wonderful friendships within our local community. Due to COVID, and the need for us all to work from home, we’ve all gotten to know each other really well. There are a number of neighbours with kids under 5, and a few times a week we have a bunch of kids playing together on our large deck outside, overlooking the Blue Mountains – the kids entertain each other which gives all us parents a mini-break. during COVID I also ran a number of kids art workshops from home, to give the kids something to look forward to at the end of the week when everything else had shut down. This formed it’s own little community of kiddo creatives.

YOU HAVE A BEAUTIFUL THREE YEAR OLD, DANTÉ – HOW IS HE WITH PRECIOUS OBJECTS, SUCH AS YOUR ARTWORK?

SM/ Hahahaha! He’s actually really good. I’ve never kept anything out of his reach, or child-proofed anything in the house. Since day dot I have explained to him that “I have explained to him that not all objects are equal – which is particularly important as a number of my small sculptures do actually look like toys.”

not all objects are equal – which is particularly important as a number of my small sculptures do actually look like toys. He understands that there are three categories of objects in our house: general toys, special toys that need to be handled with care, and artworks. All I have to say is ‘this one’s a special toy’, which might be a small bronze sculpture for example, and he knows he can pick it up and explore it but has to treat it with care and put it back where he found it. And the ceramic artworks are for viewing only. We’ve only had one or two casualties, which is fine because breaking something is ultimately the best way for kids to learn what ‘fragile’ actually means.

Sanné and her son Danté. Photo credit: Scott M Jackson

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ROOM?

SM/ My idea of a favourite room is based on where I can work away in peace, and this depends on the time of the day. I’m always moving around the house with the laptop, depending on where the light is coming from, so I work in almost every room throughout the day: the dining table, the library, my bed, my art room, on the floor in Danté’s room, at the kitchen bench. All-in-all daily life is a moveable feast.