Jessica Kadel
"If studying Fine Art at university has taught me anything, it would be that you cannot create Art solely to please others. While striving for positive feedback from tutors is all well and good, if you yourself are not passionate about your practice, it will flop. That is why I constantly create work that is very personal to me.
Since I was little, I’ve always been inclined to draw and paint faces, especially of those around me. After witnessing family members suffer from the harsh reality of Alzheimer's disease, I realised how significant memories are in building identity. I then became somewhat obsessed with sourcing old family photographs and creating paintings from them, which attempt to echo the isolation and anxiety associated with memory loss.
While rummaging one day on a quest for images, I discovered undeveloped family photographs on colour-negative celluloid film strips gathering dust in the attic. I plan to resurrect these images into a gallery setting to play with ideas of the forgotten; bringing personal discarded memories to the public eye. Also the colour-negative palette of the film adds a disturbance to the domestic; the once familiar smiley faces become unsettling strangers returning your stare.
Using Ultraviolet paint, my paintings also aim to capture the nostalgia and enchantment associated with memories to create images which are simultaneously dreamlike and eerily uncanny. Working with these film strips not only gives me a chance to relive my childhood memories, but perpetuate them through oil paint. So I strive to capture the fragility and captivation of memories, while giving them stability".
Contact: jess.k@hotmail.co.uk