Jodi Stuart - Visual artist based in Denver, CO, originally from Aotearoa, New Zealand. She completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland in 1999, and an MFA from Auckland University in 2001. Stuart currently lives, works and teaches in Denver, Colorado. As well as exhibiting in her home country of New Zealand, Stuart has exhibited in California, Colorado, Michigan, Maryland, Texas and Washington.
Artist Statement:
My work explores the shifting relationship between the body, technology, and synthetic materials. I am drawn to aesthetics of hyper-stimulation and sensory overload, where the boundaries between the natural and the artificial begin to dissolve. Using high-tech tools alongside handmade and tactile processes, I create works that reference traditional craft practices, such as weaving, knitting, and basketry; while also evoking networks and biomimicry. These intertwined ideas allow me to investigate how materials and media shape our sensory and physical experience of the world.
Currently I am working with recycled and bio-plastics, I am fascinated by its strange properties and behaviors: when heated it becomes viscous and elastic, never fully liquid yet endlessly transformable. The material appears organic and flowing even as it remains unmistakably synthetic. I weave, extrude, and manipulate. My sculptures evoke tension, between the seductive beauty of a medium that is at once toxic, persistent, and deeply embedded within our bodies and environment.
‘Jodi Stuart’s work Super Synthetic is a departure from the typical definition of multimedia. Stuart’s work starts with pixelated 2D images of computer glitches from a public satellite feed. From there she creates 3D plastic models representing the chaos and beauty of haptic feedback. These sculptures are hard to describe, and are oddly splendid. Stuart’s sculptures make us question the images that are being repeated and coded behind the scenes of everyday technological advances. Most people do not realize that these processes exist and her work makes us experience the sublime in visualizing technology.’
Juror Carrie Levy – Creative Director, The New York Times quote from Lenscratch
Process Video - BreckCreate Plastics Lab