For our third and final Kekun Residency (this is hopefuly the first series, give us a second series ya shit) we welcomed Jess Connor aka Diet Bleach 666 into the studio. With an interesting debut show at Foodstory last year Jess seemed like an artist who would bring some new ideas and energy to the studio and would be a great fit for our ambitions for Kekun as a space where artists can develop!
Decanting from his one bedroom flat into our Rosemount space, Jess set up shop and quickly set about creating a new series of paintings that continue to explore some of the hot topics of the day including anti vaccination groups and flat earth theories, quite controversial some might think. With a look at the current zeitgeist, each day seemed to reveal another idea or philosophy that seemed to go against all logic and understanding, which Jess would then attempt to distil into a single painted image and as someone who struggles and spends more time mulling over ideas than executing them, it was fantastic to see a young artist hang loose and riff on a canvas the way he did.
Of course each new piece brought with it a healthy dose of conversation around the topic, its impact on the world, critical thinking, our ability to debate our positions and finding some common respect. The term 'troll' came up a number of times and Jess even spoke about his experiences with trolling and in some ways 'No Thank You' was a creative exploration of it. Indeed some of the ideas started to walk a fine line between great and grotesque but Jess delivered a sound rationale for each piece and where he felt unsure about an idea, we were able to talk it through, giving Jess the confidence to push on. Although I got the impression he would have done anyway. Where we might have developed a subtler approach to debating our ideas Jess seemed happy to steam roll over anyone, especially flat earthers!
So over a 6 day period Jess painted 5 new large pieces along with his taco vagina piece which he'd already completed at home. It seemed shocking when he rocked up to Kekun with it on the first day, all fried bean and butt cheek on show. I think its good to be challenged though, especially in a time of bland home range art and a canvas to match your sofa mentality. Much of Jess work played on the subversive, challenging the viewer, at time in an obvious way like his piece about the current political shit storm that is Brexit but others like the Piers Morgan inspired snikers dick required a bit more thought and provided a nice link back to past current events news items, passive throw away commentary becoming immortalised through art. Although the piece is still available for purchase so please contact the artist if you wan't a naked Piers Morgan for your living room or dining room.
Along with the show Jess also delivered a great zine making workshop that sold out pretty quick. With a mixed group he explained how he uses zines to capture ideas and create stories to poke fun at whatever non science based craze is sweeping the blogosphere that week. Some participants created guides to a better future whilst one participant created a tribute to her cats (who sadly were all gone). Local doric poet Jo Dodd even made plans to create some special zine poetry books but if her workshop zine is anything to go by they will need to be 18+! Once finished the zines formed part of a zine library that was incorporated into the show.
'No Thank You' proved to be a fun show and added some much needed humour into a time where even the briefest glimpse at the news could lead to serious paranoia and fear. But Jess was able to take that media gloom and flip the script, making fun of the serious and revelling in the absurd. Thankfully we didn't have any visitors who questioned the ideas behind the show but it was reassuring to know that Jess was prepared to fight his corner and we'd be there to back him up. After all, we've always been about supporting artists and its been a pleasure to learn from and work with Jess. Looking forward to seeing his next moves in this ever crazy world!
Of course each new piece brought with it a healthy dose of conversation around the topic, its impact on the world, critical thinking, our ability to debate our positions and finding some common respect. The term 'troll' came up a number of times and Jess even spoke about his experiences with trolling and in some ways 'No Thank You' was a creative exploration of it. Indeed some of the ideas started to walk a fine line between great and grotesque but Jess delivered a sound rationale for each piece and where he felt unsure about an idea, we were able to talk it through, giving Jess the confidence to push on. Although I got the impression he would have done anyway. Where we might have developed a subtler approach to debating our ideas Jess seemed happy to steam roll over anyone, especially flat earthers!
Along with the show Jess also delivered a great zine making workshop that sold out pretty quick. With a mixed group he explained how he uses zines to capture ideas and create stories to poke fun at whatever non science based craze is sweeping the blogosphere that week. Some participants created guides to a better future whilst one participant created a tribute to her cats (who sadly were all gone). Local doric poet Jo Dodd even made plans to create some special zine poetry books but if her workshop zine is anything to go by they will need to be 18+! Once finished the zines formed part of a zine library that was incorporated into the show.
'No Thank You' proved to be a fun show and added some much needed humour into a time where even the briefest glimpse at the news could lead to serious paranoia and fear. But Jess was able to take that media gloom and flip the script, making fun of the serious and revelling in the absurd. Thankfully we didn't have any visitors who questioned the ideas behind the show but it was reassuring to know that Jess was prepared to fight his corner and we'd be there to back him up. After all, we've always been about supporting artists and its been a pleasure to learn from and work with Jess. Looking forward to seeing his next moves in this ever crazy world!
