Well, This is Problematic…
Forthcoming Solo Exhibition
Well, This Is Problematic… A forthcoming major solo exhibition outside of the institutional algorithm.
Jess de Wahls’ first solo exhibition since her public cancellation and resurrection by the British art establishment, Well, This Is Problematic… is a body of work exploring the ‘authentic’ ‘lived experience’ of being a woman within a contemporary context that has wilfully forgotten what a women is.
The exhibition content, its gestation and birthing all challenging the gatekeeping institutions captured by insidious, reductionist group think, hiding behind a mask of ‘just be kind’; bringing light to the ignore-ance of our shared Reality.
Artist statement
Ask, and it shall be given you;
Seek, and ye shall find;
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For everyone that asketh, receiveth;
And (s)he that seeketh, findeth;
And to her that knocketh, it shall be opened.
- Sermon on the Mount
Many wise words have been handed down to us throughout the ages, and as I am about to create this body of work for my forthcoming exhibition I put my faith and trust in them, as well as into my ability to create with skill and determination, knowing that I have done so many times before successfully.
I have been pregnant with the pieces for this show for the best part of four years now and, having sketched and printed them all out on fabric ready for stitching, the time has come to commit and bring them into being.
A collection of new works, mostly hand embroideries of unrivalled scale, colour and intricacy, continuing to elevate the medium far beyond the dismissive tag of “women’s work“. New mediums, including neon and sculpture, broadening my voice.
In addition to these new pieces will be a number of existing works created in the period since my cancellation and rebirth, loaned from private collections and shown publicly for the first time in many cases.
The venue is yet to be decided but the exhibition will take place in three years time in London.
As an artist that openly refuses to toe the party line of the established art world orthodoxy that has taken hold of its institutions, it is virtually impossible for me to get public funding to help put on an exhibition that ‘may offend’ in the eyes of those that sit in the gatekeeping positions.
To be in opposition to an establishment that would prefer to conveniently ignore you and your ‘problematic’ beliefs, whose commitment to diversity appears suspiciously monolithic and conformist, whose only function is to promulgate a narrative of assumed consensus nestled in the bias of an unexamined world view, I’m going to have to do things a little differently.
In the spirit of Rumi, who wrote “As you walk on the way, the way appears”, I am placing one foot in front of the other on the path to making this happen and, of course, I need help. I need your help.
To fund the exhibition, I am actively looking to recruit the support of like-minded patrons similarly wishing to give the finger to the art hegemony, circumventing said gatekeepers entirely. I’m seeking comrades-in arms, not hand-outs.
I’m doing this through an exhibition pre-sale for each of the new artworks, which can be viewed in advance below. Each piece has its own page allowing you to view them in greater detail and read my words about its inspiration. Pre-sales are incentivised with a 20% discount and the option of a payment plan. You can read more details here.
With the ‘delicate’ nature of the subject matter of many of my works in mind, patrons’ identities will be kept strictly confidential, unless they wish to reveal their involvement publicly and be acknowledged in the exhibition.
When I lived in London, cycling almost daily across Waterloo bridge, past the Hayward Gallery, which sits right on the bank of the Thames, I often dreamed of exhibiting my work there one day.
Sadly this was years before the ideological rot set in, here and at most other major publicly funded London art spaces. Perhaps if my dream does come true and the stars align for it to be the exhibition venue, the circle will be complete in the most fitting way; thumbing my nose at the institutional and ideological capture, standing in its ashes.
Jess de Wahls
Nature loves courage.
You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles.
Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up.
This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood.
This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done.
By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.
- Terrence McKenna