Jessica Howard 

In the past year I have turned to bringing performance and photography together to produce my art. Taking the idea of my body being the site from last years work and combining photography to create the end result that is stills.

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Work resolves around my own and individuals’ experiences whether it leans into a being’s mental health, sometimes looking at it through a satirical lens and other times through approaching it with metaphorical thinking. In my newest project, ‘Put Words in My Mouth’ it is about becoming sexualised within a social setting but presenting it in an uncomfortable over glamourous and commercialised aesthetic. Both concepts being serious yet relatable experiences that I as the artist and the viewers can share together.

 

I have been intrigued with how an individual experiences interaction with others and how they deal with it; whether they internalise it or externalise it. As I have developed as an artist, I have always asked myself the questions ‘Does my work make people feel uncomfortable’ or ‘Does my work start a conversation’. My latest project involved individuals telling me inappropriate statements that have been either said to them in public or online. Turning the statements into collage photography makes it harder to read, giving it the feel of struggle, uneasiness and the metaphorical idea of the destruction that can be created from these statements. These statements were said to both men and women by men; in social settings like bars, walking down the street, through message and online.

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Taking the collaged photography and bringing it back to life in short video clips, highlighting the symbolism of internalising or externalising these inappropriate statements that the receivers have to deal with. Keeping the uncomfortable chewing noises in the videos is deliberately left in to add to the feeling of uneasiness that the people would have felt when the inappropriate statements were said to them.  

 

I feel like I have achieved what I set out to do with this project, enjoying the process in making my work and overall liking the outcome from this process as an artist that is high self-critical of their work I feel this of in itself is an achievement.