Jenny Sages Nobody's daughter - Meme Thorne

It was a story in the Sydney Morning Herald that alerted Jenny Sages to the existence of performer Mémé Thorne, a story that absolutely intrigued her.

Thorne had been making random city appearances, wafting through shopping centres, train stations and office blocks dressed in fancy frocks. She was not disturbing the peace but people found it disturbing anyway; so much so, she was evicted from one office building. As she went she made video footage for a one-woman stage show called Nobody’s daughter which Sages promptly went to see.

In the piece Thorne invites you into her boudoir to eavesdrop as she prepares to kill off her old identity and reinvent herself. ‘It knocked me out,’ says Sages. ‘It engaged and fascinated me on so many levels particularly her belief that we are simultaneously spectators and performers in our own lives.’ Sages now feels a deep involvement with Thorne’s work and says she will continue to use Thorne’s images in her own work.

Thorne began her career in physical theatre in 1980 with the international research theatre group Kiss in the Netherlands. She has studied with Tadashi Suzuki at Toga in Japan and is a regular collaborator with Sidetrack Performance Group.

Born in Shanghai in 1933, Jenny Sages arrived in Australia in 1948. She studied at East Sydney Technical College, the Franklin School of Art, New York, then with John Olsen and Mary White in the 1950s. After freelancing as an illustrator for nearly 30 years, she has painted full time since 1985. Sages has won numerous prizes including the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 1992 and 1994, the Warringah Art Prize and the Mosman Art Prize both in 1994. Her work has been hung in the Archibald Prize on six previous occasions in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997.