JESSICA HUGHES

I specialise in Illustration, Photography, and Painting. The light-hearted nature of my work shows the simple things in life, the small magic moments that I consider to be of the utmost importance to the individual within this fast-paced age. I am a firm believer in being rooted in our physical and mental realities, and I distrust the digital reality made so prominent in Western Culture over the past decade. This ideology intensified in my final project as my research shed light on the ways in which technology and the institution have fundamentally transformed the social aspect of society.

My work consists of my own imaginative responses to the Human Process and contemporary issues, an example of this would have been my installation for our graduate show. I initially planned to feature a handmade bench made from reclaimed materials, surrounded by sculptural objects intended to focus attention onto the importance of our domestic environments and their impact on our mental state; effectively exploring disorientation and the feeling of displacement in an exaggerated way. Due to the unforeseen pandemic, I amended this idea. Instead, I planned to feature the bench facing my painting "Rebirth" that symbolised my experience of optimism during the threat of COVID. Fascinated by this unique, and widespread, halt of daily life and the impact of that upon each individual, I intended to symbolise the pause and reflection we were all engaged with.

Sensitive Content Warning - some works contain depictions of nudity.