Art Reviews

Interview with Poppy Jackson

30/01/16

Poppy Jackson's paintings and live performances apply a grunge aesthetic to the Western iconographic tradition, using a methodology of violence as creative and transformational catalyst. Her practice spans drawing, printmaking, painting, performance and video. She'll be speaking about her art at Norwich Arts Centre on 3rd February as part of the SPIEL series. We had a chat with her ahead of time.

Your work and its themes could be considered to be bold and provocative and clearly carry with sometimes it can get a bit lost and misconstrued by people interpreting it wrongly?

 The exciting and scary thing about art, and about anything you put out into the world, is that you can’t control anyone’s interpretations or reactions to it. Art is a question mark, rather than an answer. I’m curious about the world and I want to ask questions and explore it in my own way. I’m really interested in what people discover in my work, which is entirely up to them. So the work can’t be misconstrued because of the nature of it. Art is sometimes a mirror, and sometimes a hammer that smashes that mirror. But I don’t make art to cause offence or to shock. People who’ve come to view my live pieces have said that they’ve been surprised by their gentleness and generosity. Performance art is a genre where the body is used as a vehicle to communicate and because of this it is able to speak to everyone, so it can be a powerful and radical way to deliver a message. Performance art for me is about having an openness and honesty with my audience, and that requires a lot of vulnerability. By making actions such as sitting naked in public space, I am extending a gesture of trust out to the world in the hope that it will be reciprocated.   In some of your work you have used violence as a vehicle for you message. What do you believe this has communicated in the exploration of the autonomy of the female body? Arts practice is about creating your own language with which to explore and interpret the world through. My interpretation of the word “violence” within my practice is different to most peoples - I use it to describe the intense friction crucial for the birth of anything new. This ‘violence’ acts as a transformational catalyst in the process of the creation of my artwork. Also, we hear the word ‘violence’ so often in relation to women’s bodies as something that is forced upon them them against their will. So for me using my own form of ‘violence’ as a form of creativity in my work is an act of reclaiming and owning violence at the site of my female body itself, where it is self-defined and generated by using this body.   On your collaboration with Nina Arsenault one of the aims of the project is to explore gender through mind, body and spirit. What are you hoping to show about the topic of gender and how do you feel each of these mediums; of body, mind and spirit captures the concept of gender in a different way? Myself and Nina Arsenault for our performance ‘Lillex’ (2013) inhabited a large white box for a 5-day duration, the audience could view us through six windows but they couldn't enter the structure. We were publicly investigating gender and our female bodies, through my cis body and Nina’s transgender body, through various actions. We worked within a kaleidoscope of interactive videos projected into the space and a layering of sound works. I ate an entire wedding cake over the course of the performance and there was a katana sword in the space, various art materials and also a snake living in the space with us that we named Adam who curled up under my bed each night. Over the 5 days we passed through waves of heightened states of awareness, exhaustion and responsiveness to our materials, the space and each other, due to the work's demanding duration. On some days I experienced an amazing sense of freedom that came from the safety to do whatever I felt like, and felt very protected by the structure we were housed in. Though on other days I felt scrutinised and trapped like an animal in a zoo inside there. By the end the audience could hardly see through the windows as they had accumulated layers of paint, grease, sweat, hair, wedding cake etc. The piece intensely explored how much each of us is such a complex mix of body-mind-spirit, and concluded that gender is far more fluid and indefinable than we grow up to believe in our culture. Here’s a viewer’s account of the piece by David C James:  

 “The act of observation can feel harmless from the point of view of the observer, but being stared at like a specimen day in day out must add up to a cacophony of unwanted attention.  Suffering open stares and leers is one of the quintessential feminine experiences, and this performance magnifies the effect tenfold. It's a hell of a neat bit of performance art, the room practically pulsating with the energy of traumatic memories, aesthetics that straddle the line between erotic/grotesque and a constant sense of danger"

Some people believe the word feminism is archaic and useless within modern society, for they no longer believe gender inequality is an issue. How far do you agree or disagree with this statement and why? Unfortunately gender equality clearly hasn't happened yet. A feminist is just someone who believes that all human beings are equal, therefore almost all of us are feminist. It benefits everyone if everyone is treated equally so I’m glad that society is moving towards this.   Have there been any opportunities for work or projects that you have turned in the past that you now regret and wish you had taken? Or if not why are you glad that you turned it down?  

I don’t regret anything! It’s all part of the journey and the most important thing is that we are continuously learning. I try to do as much as I can and sometimes I wish I didn't need to sleep as I have so many ideas I want to make happen! But as performance artist Nathalia Mello said to me: “we will do what we can do.”

  What are some of the difficulties you have faced in perusing your artistic career and how did you overcome them? It’s a fascinating and challenging life to lead, guided by an intense exploration of the self and curiosity for the world we live in. The financial constraints and unpredictability of living as an artist are very challenging and like most artists I’ve always had a job on the side to support my practice. To exist as an artist and have the time to focus on my work, I had to live in my van for four years a while back because I couldn't afford to pay rent. So there have been sacrifices but I’ve learned so much from the struggles. I need to make my work and to be able to do that is the main thing.  

You have previously acted as a mentor to Norwich University Students; what do you feel is the most important message to pass on to them that you have learnt in the progression of your own career?

To find a network of other practitioners that will support, challenge and inspire them after college. To trust themselves and keep working, even through hard times. To speak with their own voice and to follow their own path. Poppy will be at NAC on 3rd February at 8pm. Pay what you can.