The seemingly infinite void of the sky has long transfixed Wanda. Inspired by a love of flight and an interest in religious ritual, she seeks to transcend the static reality of the everyday through her works. Much of her work raises questions about re-enactment, reinterpretation and recreation in the way that religious and historical texts are used to build understanding or investigate truths. The imagined civilizations, customs and rituals in her Museum of Lost Worlds are similarly reconstructed from both real and fabricated material and chronicle the incredible slippages or gaps that could occur in our known world. Through sculpture, photography and video Wanda explores the occasionally thin membranes separating the real and imagined – she has created sculptures as artefacts and incorporated actual events within her creative narratives. Her works offer viewers both clarity and questions being tangible, beautiful possibilities of what could be real.

Wanda Gillespie is a Melbourne based contemporary artist. After graduating from the Elam of School of Fine Arts, Auckland University, she migrated to Australia.
In 2006 Wanda conceived of the Museum of Lost Worlds, presenting recovered items and artefacts alongside fictional narratives on their history. On a residency in Indonesia in 2007, she researched local craft and history to further her investigations into creating believable alternate realities. Returning to Indonesia in the summer of 2009, she worked alongside local craftspeople (wood carvers, bird cage makers) and the Jatiwangi art factory to produce cultural artefacts which pinpoint historical references while questioning truth. 

In 2009 Wanda completed a Masters of Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts and was the recipient of the VCA’s Vulcan Steel tutorship award. The prize included a one-year teaching position in Sculpture and Spatial Practice.

Her work has been exhibited widely in Melbourne’s artist run spaces as well as internationally in Indonesia, Italy, and the USA. Career highlights include exhibiting in the National Sculpture Prize in Canberra, 2005, a residency to Indonesia through Asialink and project funding through Arts Victoria.