Horse Sense

In Jessie Willow Tucker’s work the issue of taste reoccurs, particularly the line between fine art, kitsch and design. With Horse Sense, she creates an installation comprised of a group of paintings in decorative frames, presented in front of wallpaper that features collaged elements from the paintings. By positioning her paintings in a decorative context she aims to draw attention to the uncomfortable relationship between High and Low Art. The content of the paintings is simultaneously authentically emotional and self-consciously kitsch. This work represents a continuation of Tucker’s exploration of water as a metaphor for emotions. Her hyper-atmospheric water scenes evolve from a painting process that is both therapeutic and celebratory. Saturated with fantasy, they are almost devotional in their unreality. But each work also contains a graphic mark from the popular culture lexicon. The aesthetic and conceptual contrast between these elements is central to the work, as each calls the other into question. Despite the heady joys of painting and personal symbolism, the Artist is continuously pulled back to the surface.