Jenny Mckimm

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My research is in the medium of multisensory domestic installation. My installation becomes a theatrical environment where collage, film, and poetry become `props`: a collaboration with the audience to interact and immerse themselves in my active research physically.  My practice has strong tones of social justice, as art cannot escape the political and, for me, can act as tools of challenging socio-economic norms.

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Prioritising concept over medium, my practice is about de-authorisation through the removal of the hand. This is resistance against the tradition of viewing the art object with elevated importance. Instead, it becomes about relating to the audience, art for the working class.

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Class is at the forefront of my research. Using the pre-conceived feeling of nostalgia, I engage critically with my own romanticism of a pre-millennium past. With source material set between the 1950s and 1980s, I focus on political parallels and juxtaposition to the present day. In my current project, “The Mill, " I explore the feeling experienced living in a predominantly working-class area surrounded by abandoned mills that once was known for silk-making. In the film “Fordism”, I collaborate with northern working-class “non-artists”, asking them to explore the societal effects of a post-industrial society. My role then mirrors the factory, turning the footage into repetitive and unnatural colour schemes. I am easily replaceable – a critique of society’s view of the worker.

 

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