Jessica Albarn

Jessica Albarn is known for her fine line drawings on paper. She also explores surface using glass, clay, wax and honey, sometimes incorporating pressed flowers and insects to create multi-layered pieces. The order of geometry and sacred geometry is interwoven with the organic expressive line, which to the artist is in some way a portrait of a state of mind or an expression of our relationship to the natural world.

The glass archive boxes especially are a comment on this and the deepening fact that we as human beings are destroying our planet and becoming more distant from our fellow creatures. The boxes resemble museum specimen cases, which are increasingly how we will learn about Nature - dead, and through glass.

Albarn has exhibited extensively and has created two books, Bee-headed and The Boy in the Oak - a dark faerie tale, which she wrote and illustrated. The story was made into a short film narrated by Jude Law and directed by Luke Losey.

Recently Albarn collaborated with the musician, composer and sound designer Nick Powell for her stop-motion films Creation and Life after Death. Life after Death was shown at her solo show at the Jealous gallery in London in 2018.

Devoted to the bee, she has used her work to raise awareness and pay homage to the plight of this insect. She is currently developing a meadow in Devon to support the bees and the other local wildlife of the area as well as creating a space to explore ideas and gather research. Her work was recently exhibited at the Drang gallery in Salcombe, close by the meadow.

www.jessicaalbarn.co.uk

You can read more about Jessica Albarn's work and inspiration in Resurgence & Ecologist Issue 315, July/August 2019.