Jessica Gondek

My work endeavors to blur the distinction between hand and machine. The title of the exhibition, Ironmades, is a nod to the early 20th Century Dada movement engaged with machinery and readymades.  As an artist, I continue building on this tradition to bring it into the digital era of the 21st Century as our relationship with technology continues.

The forms I explore are inspired by vintage domestic utilitarian machines and gadgets I have collected as well as related trade catalogues, advertisements, blueprints, and patent drawings.  Digital manipulations derived from these source materials lay a foundation that launches their evolution. The drawing medium allows for both transparency and mutability between layers of information.  The mechanical forms within these compositions are simultaneously transformed casting off their intended function and asserting an animated physical presence and internal narrative that allows me to explore a multitude of dualities: male vs female, hand vs machine, organic vs mechanical, playful vs menacing, analog vs digital, and functional vs dysfunctional.