Jess Hodge

Painting A2 Portraits for $200 - have a few on the go already but email me - jessica.kh89@gmail.com

theloop.com.au/Jesshaskittenleodivinci

At A Glance

Job Title	Student
Industry	Visual Arts
Profession	Visual Artist
Expertise	Drawing
Level	Junior

Availability	Looking for Work
Location	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Residency / Visa	Australia / New Zealand

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Xenphobia

Visual Arts, Drawing

I am fascinated by Australia’s culture of exclusion when it comes to outsiders. Through my works, I explore the common attitudes of Australian people towards refugees and examine a commonly perceived threat of ‘other’, reflected in our treatment of asylum seekers. We label, cage and exclude refugees, all in the name of protecting our society. Australians claim ownership and possession of this land; barring refugees on the basis of class and culture, inciting ‘white-man’, traditional Western law.

On a personal excursion to Villawood Detention Centre, I unearthed a desire to promote a change in common attitudes towards refugees and endorse an ethical approach to processing people who seek asylum. As an artist whose method is involved, I create an unwavering bond with myself and the people I draw, whom I have no access to other than through collated images found in the media, thus reflecting the relationship between the Australian Public and Asylum seekers as distant and dispassionate.

In an attempt to connect with individual detainees and their stories, I have used charcoal on watercolour paper to capture their likeness as well as their hope, fear and uncertainty. I believe drawing and line work has a more privileged power to resonate with audiences than a snapshot photograph, due to the personal mark produced by the artist’s hand. In this way, I have chosen to continue my line of enquiry through portraiture, manipulating space, presence and absence and creating visual meaning through the constructed image.