Sal Cooper is an interdisciplinary artist who has been practising for fifteen years with a focus on screen-based works. Her wide ranging cross-platform practice covers independent filmmaking, hand drawn and stop motion animation, installation and performance events.
Her work utilizes an observational language that gives expression to deliberate misunderstandings, absurd irregularities and comic abstractions. She employs complex and refined production techniques to project a lyrical depth and meaning onto objects and landscapes - fully exploring the imaginative possibilities of the ordinary world around us.
The integration of music within the context of moving image is a central part of her practice as can be seen in her ongoing collaboration with composer Kate Neal under the title Flight Risk. This collaboration has given rise to a body of commissioned material that includes major theatrical/performance works, concert pieces and music videos as well as work for cinematic settings.
Most recently Sal was co-artistic director of A Book of Hours which enjoyed a successful premier season at Dancehouse in September 2023. Sal was co-artistic director of While You Sleep, a live theatrical performance piece for string quartet and visual media, which explored the boundaries between visual art and music and premiered in a sell out season at Arts House in November 2018. While You Sleep commenced national touring in 2022. Further works include The Commuter Variations a work for solo piano and animation that was commissioned by The Melbourne Recital Centre, the award-winning theatrical music work Semaphore on which she was a key collaborator, and numerous short animated films including Song For a Comb which was a Tropfest finalist and won both Best Animation and Best Woman in Film Awards. As well as her engagement in large scale performative and collaborative events Sal exhibits regularly in solo and group shows.
In the course of Sal’s practise she has undertaken several public art projects and attended residencies in Australia and overseas. Her short films and experimental videos continue to be screened around the world.
I live and work on the lands of the Wurundjeri people. I acknowledge their sovereignty and pay my respects to their Elders past present and emerging.