Artist Biography and Statement

 

Artist Biography
Jennessa Bates is a Canadian-based artist from Alberta, in Treaty 7 Territory. She has a Bachelor of Fine Art’s- Art Studio. She has been strengthening and exploring her skills in sculpture and installation. She challenges herself by experimenting with materials such as found objects, textiles, and various clays in her studio. Her art practice is inspired by dreams and their connection to emotions, mental health, and memories. Then she creates personal meaning through her artwork. In 2022 she had her artwork display in The Niche Gallery at the University of Lethbridge.

Artist Statement

My interest in dreams began during my last year of high school when my father passed away from lung cancer. Most of my dreams were confronting my grief for him, from telling him he was dead, or heart-warming conversations that could only be recalled through images and abstract feelings. These dreams encouraged me to write and think about the connection between dreams and my mental-well being, memories, thoughts, and emotions. I am interested in how this period of sleep impacts our process of healing and allows us to escape from the harsh realities around us.

I record my dreams in a small journal to use as reference material. When reading my writings, I seek compelling images or descriptions that I want to have conversations with. When I meet dream characters, I meditate and ask them questions to figure out their purpose and why they have come to visit me. Then I consider my emotional state around the time I had my dream and establish my own symbolic meaning through my artwork. To create these fabricated realities as tangible, I select materials that best respond to the experience of my dream. These materials range from found objects, textiles, and various clays. I play and experiment with these materials to understand its language and how it can authentically or figuratively represent my dream’s experience.

What does a vivid dream reveal about my psychological state? How does the subconscious process memories and experiences from waking life? I see these questions as a therapeutic process to my art practice in which I analyze my dreams and learn what my subconscious wants me to revisit. I am interested in the surreal nature of dreams and how they can vary from whimsical journeys to disturbing anxieties. This interest includes the surrealism movement of letting the unconscious influence artwork. An artist that inspires me to explore sculpture in a surreal context is Meret Oppenheim. Her sculpture The Luncheon in Fur demonstrates how materials can conjure subconscious reactions: the visceral and disturbing sense of touching fur to your mouth when sipping the teacup. While researching past concepts of dreams, I investigate contemporary ideas of psychoanalytic dream theories dating back to Carl Jung. This includes how dreams play out creative solutions, regulating the dreamer’s inner emotions, and how both our waking life and dreams influence each other.

Project/Installation Statement
I was surrounded by brick-like town houses, cobblestone roads, and a dark blue night sky. My body was covered in a pink salmon robe. In front of me was a fleshy featherless chicken with a balloon tied to her leg. She was the witch that had transformed into her other form. She told me that she and the others were ready to move on, but they needed my help. Balloons of different colours were being produced by the warm yellow glow of streetlamps. Some streetlamps had one or two heads. I picked up the witch and together we started to fly, grabbing the strings of balloons to create a chaotic bouquet. We few high in the sky and release the balloons into a milky white portal. We slowly floated down back to earth.

I have painted a scene of this dream and created a sculpture of the featherless chicken. Revisiting this dream again, I decided it was time to create an installation. I see personal meaning in the balloon and chicken. I see the balloon as a vessel to guide the dead to the afterlife, while the witch is the acceptance of grief and a reminder to find healing. I had this dream while in high school, around the time my father passed away. I see a connection between my dream and my waking life. This dream is evidence that my subconscious is inviting me to revisit grief and to heal.