ARTIST STATEMENT
Water holds secrets and truths and is willing to share them with anyone who will listen. My practice is one of listening. I listen to the material, I listen for whatever truths it wants to tell me today, and I listen for what it wants to become. I do this by touch, by hearing the material whisper through my nerves and veins, “notice this” “I want to be bigger/smaller/smoother in this spot.” I feel these things deep inside of me as a building and often sudden urgency, like I inhaled and have been holding my breath.
Much of my work is along the theme of return by way of healing and vice versa. There is a visiting, where I am an observer, partially removed from the experience of living, just here to see what this life is about, and there is a returning, to truth and to who I am, where I come from, and why I am here. My intuitive carving and gestural mark making lead to truths. The final result often appears to be abstracted ideas of what humans consider sublime or natural, but what is true about them is their genuineness. They are not representations of the objects they resemble, but objects themselves that have the effect of often tricking the viewer into seeing a realistic representation of something familiar, when in fact the realness they are attracted to is the life and eternal truth emanating from the genuineness of the gesture. The piece itself is quite abstracted, in that it is made up entirely of gestures and is quite different from the natural object the viewer thinks they are seeing. I trust the material to guide my hand to the mark it wants to have. The gesture is loving and generous.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jacqueline is interested in flipping the power dynamic that exists between artist and material; rather than acting as master and manipulator, she prefers to collaborate with her medium and allow the voice and agency of the material to show through. Inspired by her mystical Jewish upbringing in Seattle, Washington, as well as her lifelong exposure to holistic and ayurvedic principles, she interprets an urgency in her body, similar to an inhaled and held breath, as a nonverbal communication that she is having with the material. She experiences the water that is in her material to be speaking directly to the water in her body, guiding her hand to the shape the material wants to become. Each unique piece that she creates emanates the eternal truth and genuineness of the loving gestures it is made of.
Currently based in Chicago, Jacqueline received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in Spring of 2022. Prior to and during her time at SAIC, Jacqueline has participated in many collaborative shows and exhibitions, displaying work in mediums not limited to: Ceramics, Paint, Lithograph, Monotype, Sculpture, Installation, and Performance. She was accepted as a Student Fellow with the Jewish Art Salon, and is currently participating as a resident in the Connect International Residency. Her practice was spotlighted in a 2022 donor publication after being awarded the Ellen Lanyon Scholarship.
© Jacqueline Saepoff