Jessica Colley – the weight

Jessica Colley – the weight

Exhibition Opening January 28, 7pm – 9pm  

Jessica Colley – the weight

I first became aware of my health-related anxiety when the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. During this time, two items became deeply engrained in my daily routine: my weighted blanket and my mask. I wore my mask everywhere I went, and when I got home, I would slip under my weighted blanket, searching for the same comfort and security that my mask brought throughout the day. It was in these moments that I became acutely aware of the intimate connection between these two objects. Both were a barrier, separating myself from the world around me. They carried a weight, one that affected me both physically and mentally; comforting and crushing simultaneously.

These conflicting thoughts reflect our increasingly polarized world that intensified further throughout the pandemic. We watched the world get smaller as communities reached out to provide comfort and support to one another; yet in the same breath, we saw communities torn apart by opposing views. Wear the mask, don’t wear the mask. Touch, don’t touch. Here, there. Us, Them. People were, and continue to be, divided. In creating this weighted blanket, I wanted to consider these complex binaries alongside my own lived experience to reveal their conflicting and complicated nature.

Jessica Colley (she/her) is an artist living and working in Southern Alberta. She graduated from the University of Lethbridge with a BFA in Art Studio in 2020 and continues to study towards a BFA in Art History and Museum Studies. Her art practise is multidisciplinary, but currently centers on textile materials, her relationship to those materials, and the ways in which they communicate and perform.

Date:January 28th, 2023  -  March 25th, 2023

Location:Casa - Platform

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