Overview
Tomashi Jackson (b. 1980, Houston, Texas)
Tomashi Jackson’s (b. 1980, Houston, TX) research-driven multimedia practice combines painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video, fibrework and performance to explore the influence of social histories and aesthetic theory. Tracing an intersection between 1960s colour theory, histories of abstraction, love songs and archival imagery, Jackson interrogates the ways in which aesthetic and political edicts of colour are fundamentally interwoven. A painterly approach anchors her practice; from a kaleidoscopic layering of colour and vinyl strips onto her increasingly sculptural surfaces, to projecting colour through her videos and photographs, and a theoretical approach to colour in her fibrework. Jackson fuses historical images with earthen materials that reference sites and subjects of public concern, including: education policy and voting rights in the United States; the implementation of eminent domain in New York City since the razing of Seneca Village in the 19th century, and the history of governments trafficking drugs as a means to fund wars. By using nuanced colour and collage strategies, Jackson invites the viewer to consider material experiences of painting, the ways in which colour perception has influenced the governance of public spaces, and how marginalised communities preserve and empower themselves.
