Jessica Labette

My photographs are formalist explorations of everyday objects and materials that engage the subjectivity and experiential qualities of matter. Juxtapositions of content, form, and color imbue dynamism into the still life tradition in their ability to place a still object into a state of becoming. In this state of action, the images have an autopoietic, or self-generating visual rhythm established within the composition’s architecture. Perspectival manipulations created with the large format camera shift and tilt the picture plane, creating a confusing sense of depth and scale. These images play with the illusionistic tendencies of photography and its potential to simultaneously reveal truths and spin falsehoods. By creating a tension between accurate representations of form and deceiving attempts at flatness, my photographs lead viewers through a strange questioning of what it is we are actually seeing and how it was created. These mind- bending forms result in pleasurable questioning that provokes an active looking.

Looking back to Dutch still life paintings, my photographs present objects for contemplation on the social, political and technics of the time. These objects are from the street as much as from the studio–representations of the discarded and the treasured. However these images do not engage in the creation of specific symbolisms, as the objects in the pictures never stand for something else. They are content to be themselves, formally captivating us through a chaos of sensations. Fragments act as catalysts allowing a wide range of references to float in and out of the viewer’s consciousness, as they incite provoking questions about how to reconcile our subjectivity with the objects surrounding us. And while the images foreground human presence as much as they play archaeologist for contemporary consumer culture, they also engage photography’s potential as the link between physical and immaterial worlds.

Jessica Labatte (b. 1981, Salt Lake City, UT) received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009.

She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a 2009 Master of Fine Arts Fellowship and the 2008 James Weinstein Memorial Fellowship. She was also selected to be a 2010 Newcity Breakout Artist.

Recent solo exhibitions include Lazy Shadows at GOLDEN, Chicago, IL, and Bright Branches at Scott Projects, Chicago, IL. Selected group exhibitions include Partisan, Art Chicago, P’s & Q’s at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, The Triumph of Patience at Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts, Miami, FL, and Second Stories at Zolla/Lieberman, Chicago, IL.

Upcoming endeavors include residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT, Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI, and Elsewhere Collaborative, Greensboro, NC.