Who Put the Stars at the Bottom of the Ocean?

Jack makes evocative collages that begin with what’s already there, like the little “treasures” discovered during nature walks. The artist often looks at a more sustainable way of creating, finding value in objects that already come with their own history. They use irony and tenderness, and let the pieces come together organically when they’re ready to whisper a new story. When you imagine love affairs, contradictions, joys and secrets of people you’ve never met, you’re drawing a visual poem. In each poem there is an underlying sense of waiting, a tongue in cheek smile, a moment of nostalgia that challenges your senses. 

These works explore memory and play, masculinity and gender norms, they take you back to a time of simplicity, of stories around the campfire, they speak of hidden identities and silenced voices, of love called friendship, of motherhood and abandonment, and they carry within a longing for silence. The photographs, sourced in charity shops and flea markets pre-lockdown, are now mainly acquired at online auctions or donated by fellow artists. Red cotton threads, candles, keys, old paper fragments are some of the elements the artist uses to bring old, discarded photographs to new life. How can photos from the past century be so relevant today? Maybe they were woven with the threads of a collective consciousness that we’re now trying to untangle. 

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Instagram: @jackravi