Meet the Artist // Jessica Ledwich

Could you tell us a bit about your artistic background and the project you are proposing for this three-month residency here at GlogauAIR?

I’m from Australia and originally trained in commercial photography. I used to work in fashion photography. So, I guess glossy aesthetics is something that was really prevalent early on. I think that I got really sick of doing that and I guess got very sick of the surface nature of it. I always wanted to go in a bit deeper.

Then I moved more into an art area but found that I still was really interested in those aesthetics and I guess the ideas and themes around commercial photography and commercialism. It’s been sort of a natural progression and it leads very much into my project here because it’s all about the way that photography is used as a tool to seduce us. It’s a very integral part of the capitalist model of selling us things. It’s almost like capitalism needs photography to function. And it’s that kind of illusion that it creates. I guess it’s something about that that I find really fascinating.

This project is very much about exploring our continued obsession with the surface and the fact that we are continually trying to get meaning through what we consume in terms of goods. This project is very much about exploring this idea of the real and the artificial, what’s fake and what’s not. And really using those aesthetics of the hyper-real, glossy, that we’re kind of really, unconsciously used to seeing all the time and responding to.

How did you come to develop a practice that bridges photography and installation?

I think there was a desire to move away from photography when I stopped doing commercial work. It was like a rejection of it. So, I moved into starting to do more sculptural things.

And then I did my master’s and there’s a push to experiment with materials and materiality. That was where I started to play with how photography could be incorporated into a more immersive installation aspect. I think the immersive aspect is a quality that I really like. And the tactile creation. A lot of my photographs are quite sculptural. So, I’ve now almost come back around and kind of merged the two together.

I find that photography can be quite immersive, but the two dimensional aspect of it, it can only go so far. Something about an installation aspect forces the viewer to kind of get amongst things, which I think can kind of make it a lot more immersive. I also studied taxidermy as well, so, there was an aspect of bringing these visceral elements into the work. And those sculptural and installation aspects that bring a richer element to these things that I’m exploring.

So, how do you incorporate found imagery and everyday objects into your work? And what role do they play in the narrative of your artworks?

Well, I’m really fascinated by just the things that you find that are very mass produced. I trawl discount stores, like Eurostore, flea markets, even the supermarket. It’s about finding these mass produced objects that really speak to this kind of consumer fetish that we have. But there’s also an element though of them being odd. It’s almost like they reveal themselves to be a parody of consumerism, like the brussels sprout puzzle. Like, who would ever want to do a puzzle of just brussels sprouts? And even more brilliant is this for children seven to ten. What seven-year-old is going to want to spend hours making a brussels sprouts puzzle? It’s so funny, but it’s almost like it doesn’t get the joke. I guess it’s these kinds of elements.

I’m always looking for something that’s just a bit, like the question is, why was this ever made? Like, why were precious resources used to create this? It’s almost like the absurdity in that is the very thing I’m looking to expose. But also, the found photographs, it’s a similar kind of thing. I’ve found a few really interesting postcards from the 70s and the 80s. What’s interesting about postcards is they’re almost like a snapshot in time of a cultural attitude or a sort of zeitgeist. For example, I found one from the 70s, which is a postcard of a TV dinner. We look at that now and wonder, who’s going to send a postcard of a TV dinner? Why would you put this on a postcard? And then you realize, at the time, it’s modernity, it’s progress, it’s the future. There’s something really fascinating in that.

The idea of simulacrum is central to your project. What does the real mean to you today in a world oversaturated with images?

It’s a really interesting question. I was sort of sitting and thinking about that a lot and to be honest, I think it’s becoming increasingly slippery. I think this notion of what is real is actually continually moving. I think that it’s less about imagery that’s not manipulated, but it’s more about that floor, that element there that reveals the reality underneath that veneer of perfection.

For example, you have the glossy gold bunny, but it’s got a crack in its ear and it’s got a chip. And so that’s why it’s reduced, but they’re selling it anyway. It’s this interesting thing of everything’s got a price, for example, the food photography where the cream is melted before you had time to take the picture.

It’s this idea of the elements where we sort of see the cracks beginning to show metaphorically in this veneer of perfection. I think that that’s really where the truth is lying now, because in the oversaturation that we have, everybody filters everything.

When we look at AI now, the biggest complaint is that it looks too fake. Everything’s too smooth. The skin has no tone. The colours are just too vibrant. It’s almost like the antidote to that is where you almost find yourself questioning, well, it has to be real because why would anyone have made that up? I think that it’s interesting with photography because the history of photography was based in truth. It was the only thing you could believe because it was a record making device. And now, we choose to not believe it before we believe it. So, there’s inherent suspicion regardless now. I think that that’s something really interesting to kind of play with.

For me, I guess it’s around things like the wilted flowers as opposed to the perfect flowers. It’s about those things where there’s an element of reality, but there’s also sort of that tension.