Jessica Houston

Unending Industry

2017

Going North in the Work of Jessica Houston By L. Sasha Gora Jessica Houston’s most recent works look north. What is north? Where is it? Is it a fixed place, or something else? Her second solo show at Art Mûr brings together paintings, a sound sculpture, and chine collé prints, all of which reveal a fragile, fluid, and often fractured, north. An iron ore stone becomes a speaker, playing recordings of interviews and singing, and expanding the physical presence of the stone. The exaggerated textures of the paintings give them, too, a sculptural and documentary feel. They record how actions—breaking and piercing, pushing and pulling—disrupt and transform the paintings’ surfaces. By resembling patterns one finds in the wild—scratches across the surface of a rock, uneven waves that form on melting snow—they unhinge any clear distinction between what is natural and what is made. Made with a printmaking technique that binds together distinct papers, the chine collé prints begin with photographs Houston took of Baffin Island. She then combines the images with coloured paper, creating traces of the process of extracting and replacing parts of a scene, and an equal awareness of both what is present and absent. Some are composed of double circles, like looking through binoculars. In Business As Usual, a decaying interior—peeling wallpaper...

The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...

The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze. These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...

The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze. These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...

Untitled (Nr. 7817) Photography 44" x 36" Edition of 12 by Rowan Daly Unframed - ships rolled in a tube Ben Cope + Rowan Daly Off the Grid Off the Grid is the culmination of a s...

Billy Childish, Tree – Seattle, 38.3 x 30.5 cm, edition of 200, 2022 hand-signed and numbered by the artist Billy Childish is a prolific British artist, musician, and writer know...

Lee Wells Enchantment Afloat (EOW L23) End of the World Party Series 2023 Archival pigment print Edition of 1 Signed, dated and numbered by the artist Caption: Enchantment Afloat: A...

Lee Wells Enchantment Afloat (EOW L23) End of the World Party Series 2023 Archival pigment print Edition of 5 Signed, dated and numbered by the artist Caption: Enchantment Afloat: A...