Can art represent what it means to be human? This question has been the
underlying theme of my artistic practice. My works encompass a variety of mediums
including painting, sculpture, video, performance, and installation. These mediums have
propelled my investigations to understand what the human condition is and how moments
of human experience can be captured in matter.
Text has been a reappearing element in my practice. Through the use of text in my
installations and performances I directly address a state of mind. The impermanence in
materials in relation to, states of mind is an important aspect of my work.
Embedded in much of the work is a reference to the body as carrier of emotions
and potency, reflective of deeper inner states. Performance has allowed me to use
my body as a material. In the body text performances “ one and two” , I directly use
my body as a canvas, writing out the internal states that communicate my interaction
and placement within the world. My interest is to refer to the body as a site where the
development of experience and language resides rather than an object. In this work I am
considering the way in which a body can register and be registered.
The contemporary obsession with appearance is another driving interest in
my work. I feel captured and captivated by constantly being surrounded by images
of the body. Through the use of narrative I am drawing from personal experience and
addressing the questions and issues of expectations, boundaries, goals, validation, and the
widespread concerns that are placed upon us by our culture, our society, and ourselves.
In trying to deal with what it feels like to be alive, human, and a woman of a
western cultural society, I use my art as a tool to get closer to the question of, what it
means to be human. I endeavor to find a visual and conceptual balance between using the
intimate personal experience and commenting on a more universal state.
Jamie Nadherny