Jessie Holmes (b.1982, CA) studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design (BFA) Vancouver, The Staedelschule, Frankfurt am Main and OCADU (MFA), Toronto. Her interdisciplinary practice explores character development and parafictional narratives. Her work integrates performance, poetry, and painting to seek out the incessant possibilities of personal transformation through storytelling.

Holmes’ work explores parafiction, a concept defined by art historian Carrie Lambert-Beatty. Parafiction describes works that challenge the distinction between fact and fiction, in this case for Holmes, serving as a tool for self-reflective practices. Through projects like Hotel Adipose, she creates transitional spaces that act as small-scale models for exploring western modern life, where technology, work, relationships, and identity converge. These living narratives can evolve organically, reflecting on how personal development can be shaped by both internal desires and external forces in the accelerated world we live in.

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Holmes' performative work evolved when she was living in Germany between 2008 - 2018, as a foreign student and artist.

Her performed poetry often manifests as scripts, providing direction and prompts for performers. In works such as Mira and No time, performers embody poetic concepts, their actions and gestures giving physical form to abstract ideas. This approach transforms traditional notions of poetry into multidimensional experiences. The ongoing performance series Mini Jobs offers commentary on the precarious nature of artistic labour. These durational performances showcase the often absurd, comical and bizarre employment opportunities that artists and expatriates endure for income. From driving a dog to Amsterdam to drawing lines on blank loose-leaf paper, Mini Jobs highlight the creativity and resilience required to navigate the challenging landscape of earning a living in the arts.

 

Holmes' abstract paintings extend her performance work, further exploring narrative methodologies and parafiction. Biographical anecdotes and conversational debris converge into channeled landscapes, characterized by colour, serving as a form of emotional mapping.

Personal narratives are creatively observed, interpreted and guided through a visual and physical connection with tactile materials. Within these works, abstraction becomes a living narrative, where colour and gesture chart the shifting terrain of memory and identity.

This process of painting gives credence to the currency of storytelling and practiced as a tool to support personal development.

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