Jess Loseby
About work For Transept:Traverse
This work is based around faith and power. The (apparently praying) iconography within this piece is an amalgamation of two poses held during an interaction between and angel an innocent, forever suspended in a meeting of elements, found by the Transept.
The girl in this artwork suggests elements of both poses - depicting both power and faith. This transepting and traversing relationship is echoed in artistic whispers throughout the cathedral. The resulting interaction mirrors the architectural history of the space itself, seeped into the very stone of its being - where power and faith meet in eternally crossing dialogues. At times in history this intoxicating combination has produced powerful creativity. Yet in darker times, power was able to purchase faith and gain immortality. At least in marble…
was a challenge for me because I am a digital artist and the only digital artist I could use in this exhibition was digital print. However, one of the things that fascinates me about digital media is the “social sculptures” that have occurred and I wondered if I could create a similar situation here.
I hung £20, in one pound coins from the silver “tree”. I wondered if “we” still had the same attitude in taking forbidden objects form Judaeo-Christian icons (Basically how long it would take for people to get over the fact that they were stealing from a cathedral and nick them…!!!)
Anyway, I expected them to last as week.
In 24 hours all the coins had gone.
Within 48 hours every box had been ripped open – presumably looking to see if there were more coins inside.
I think it answered the issue of temptation!
I then hung a range of new objects r aging from foreign notes, plastic gems to broken angels to examine whether it is the object or the actual act of taking that is the temptation.
By the end of the exhibition, only a Cyprian firve pound note, a gem and the broken boxes remained.
Biography
Jess Loseby BA, MA (First Class)
Jess Loseby is a digital artist. Her main “canvas” and “paint” is the computer but extending into interactive installations, photography, video, mixed media and performance. Her work is based around “the cyber-domestic aesthetic”; scrutinising the small, the domestic and her ideas of “amplified reality”.
Loseby’s artwork is eclectic and international: from mobile-phone portraiture to digital set design for the Met Theatre in Hollywood. She was the first UK artist to undertake a totally virtual artist residency (with Furtherfield.org). She has received number of gallery commissions and awards including Daniel Langlois (Canada, 2004) , Babylon Digital (UK, 2005) and the International Digital Art Prize (Italy, 2006-7) and her artwork and methods were chapter featured in Doug Easterly’s book “Best Practice: The Pros on Adobe Flash” in 2008.
As artist-curator, her projects include the nominated ‘digital pocket gallery’, ‘the cyber-kitchen’ and ‘disturb.the.peace (angry women)’. She was a formerly a lecturer (graduate and post-graduate) until the university decided that they really didn’t know what to do with digital art and ran, possibly screaming, back to the paintbox.
Trying to avoid the staving artist bit (SO last millennium) she now designs accessible (disability-friendly) websites (including this one) for her family company Access-By Design.
She has 3 children, 2 wheels, 1 husband and will never have enough time…
