“The access features throughout the building, flat, and maker spaces mean that this is the first place I’ve ever fully been able to be an artist.
Previously the spaces I have worked in have not been accessible or integrated with other artists. Having an accessible studio space at The Art House [has] made a vast difference because I participate on as equal a basis as possible, alongside studio holders.”
– Jessie Davies
About the artist
Jessie Davies is an artist who works with painting to highlight the importance of the UK’s fragile and threatened wetland environments, which play a vital role in our wider ecosystems. Working with acrylic and mixed media, and often incorporating discarded objects and materials found in reed-beds, her work references the impact of global climate change on these fragile ecologies.
Davies produces paintings by immersing herself in the reeds and foliage of this terrain, whilst extensively researching specific habitats and ecologies. Living with autism and multiple disabilities, and spending all her life in a wheelchair, Davies’ access to and view of the rural environment is from a particular angle. Her low viewing position, sitting amongst the reeds, provide her with an acute observation of overlooked and small aspects that nestle in the landscape, expressing clashes of human activity and nature’s resilience.
Davies’ recent work focuses on two local freshwater reed-beds on the Humber estuary which have been restored following saline incursion during tidal floods. The Art House will support the artist with a year-long residency throughout 2022, allowing her to reflect and move forward with her practice. It will provide her space to increase the ambition of her ideas and help her create her largest and most ambitious work to date.
Visit the artist’s website to find out more about her creative practice.
Find out more
About the residency
Davies will be Artist in Residence throughout 2022. As an artist with complex needs, The Art House will support Davies with a year-long residency, hosting her for four days each month to provide guidance and curatorial support.
Over the year, Davies will create new artwork. The residency will provide vital support for the artist to reflect and move forward with her practice, give space to increase the ambition of her ideas, and support the creation of her most extensive and ambitious work to date. The project will conclude with the first major retrospective of the artist’s work and journey to date.
Image: Jessie Davies, Climate Change – Estuary Influx. Courtesy of the artist.