Artist Feature with Poppy Jackson

POPPY JACKSON, 'Impossible', Defibrillator Peformance Art Gallery | Chicago 2014 | photo by Veronika Merklein

I am pleased to feature the work of UK based performance artist, Poppy Jackson. Jackson presents actionist based performance works that explore the autocratic female body. Her paintings and live performances apply a grunge aesthetic to the Western iconographic tradition, using a methodology of violence as creative and transformational catalyst. Her practice spans drawing, printmaking, painting, performance and video. Jackson's ongoing collaboration with Nina Arsenault aims to 'explode gender through mind, body and spirit'. Her current research considers the menstruating body as inherently "performic".

I was led to Jackson's work through fellow performance artist, Benjamin Sebastian. Both Sebastian and Jackson are an essential part of ]performance space[, a non-profit organization devoted to the cultivation and promotion of performance art. I asked Jackson to consider the initial lure of performance art and name influential artists.

Here was her response:
QUINN DUKES: What led you to performance art?
POPPY JACKSON: My body
​
QD: Are there performance artists working today that influence your practice? 
PH: Sinead O'Donnell, Hugh O'Donnell, Rocio Boliver, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Bean, ( ]performance space[ founder), Alastair MacLennan, Victoria Gray, Kira O'Reilly, Mark Greenwood, Julia Bardsley, Lynn Lu, Benjamin Sebastian, Anne Bean.

SELECTED WORKS FROM POPPY JACKSON

All images are courtesy of the artist.

ABOUT

​Poppy received a BA (Hons) in Visual Performance from Dartington College of Arts in 2005, and later earned her MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths University. Her work has been supported by Arts Council England and the British Council and presented internationally, including at The Barbican and Whitechapel Galleries (London), Arnolfini (Bristol), Black Box (Belfast), Project Arts Centre (Dublin), Kunselforum (Cologne), Fluxus Ministeria (Kaunas), FEM Festival (Girona), Museum of New Art (Detroit), Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery (Chicago), and Grace Exhibition Space (New York). Poppy was recently guest editor of BLUD ZER0 Collective's first E-Zine and her written work will be published in the 'OUI Performance Book' later this year.

Poppy acts as a mentor to graduates from Norwich University of the Arts and has been invited to teach, present talks and give workshops at arts spaces and universities, most recently at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She regularly curates events and facilitates professional development projects for emerging artists. She is Project Director of Liminal Bodies, the international network of nomadic artists; she also runs SITE/SPACE, a monthly site responsive event. Poppy is an Associate Artist of ]performance s p a c e [ in London.

---

CHECK OUT MORE from Poppy Jackson on her website: poppyjackson.co.uk/