Jessica Hirst

JESSICA HIRST - SPAIN

I am an artist who works with performance, video, photography, writing, installations, and assemblage. I live and work among Barcelona, San Diego, and Washington, DC. I have presented my work in Barcelona, Sevilla and Madrid (Spain), Paris and Cazals (France), London and Reading (UK), Belgrade (Serbia), Berlin (Germany) Managua and Granada (Nicaragua), Tegucigalpa and Copan (Honduras), San Jose (Costa Rica), Tijuana (Mexico), New York City, Washington, DC and San Diego (USA). I have studied contemporary art practice at Metafora in Barcelona and earned a Bachelor of Science with distinction from Stanford University.

ARTIST STATEMENT

As opposed to a struggling artist, I am an artist who struggles. I struggle with the depression associated with bipolar disorder (Type II) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and with the stigma associated with these mental illnesses.

Part of the difficulty in recovering from trauma is accepting the lack of agency one had during and after the traumatic experience. I deliberately plan and perform “accidents” in which no one is hurt and nothing terrible happens - my actions are no longer accidents, no longer completely beyond my control. I regain the ability to think, to shape events. The outcome is cathartic rather than traumatic, life-affirming rather than tragic. Whether the trauma is personal or political, physical or psychological, private or public, part of the trauma was being robbed of agency, and hence my performances, in their re-assertion of personal power, are political.

I make metaphoric crumple zones, the parts of a car’s body designed to absorb the massive energy caused by the impact of a crash. Like the engineering of a crumple zone, my works create a space to observe controlled deformation, rather than merely succumb to chaotic destruction. They explore ways to redirect and absorb the forces that threaten to crush us. I am interested in how human actions on objects represent how we treat ourselves internally and how we treat one another.

ARTISTS

Nathalie Alfonso Cristy Almaida

Eliu Almonte

Bistoury Physical Theatre

Johan Mijail Castillo

Orestes De La Paz

Nicolas Dumit Estevez

Jessica Hirst