Jojo Knowles - Collateral

Pulchri Studio heeft de eer recent afgestudeerde kunstenaars van diverse academies in het land uit te nodigen om lid te worden van onze vereniging. Tevens bieden wij hen de gelegenheid om zonder kosten hun werk tentoon te stellen in een eerste solotentoonstelling binnen onze galerie. Dit initiatief wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt dankzij de steun van de Stichting Pulchro Sacrum. In deze tentoonstelling is Jojo Knowles(SE/USA) aan de beurt. Zij studeerde in 2024 af aan de opleiding van de Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Den Haag. 

Collateral is a solo exhibition of sculptures and video investigating the absurd corners of human centrism. The works reflect on the ways animals suffer as collateral damage to daily human lives. The small sufferings, the ones that are easy to overlook. The artist spends the day with a dead fish, eats raw onions to be more like an ape, memorializes roadkill. Searching for ways to mend our relationships with animals we domesticated, and searching for a way to de-domesticate ourselves.

With thanks to support from Stroom Den Haag and Amarte Fonds.

Jojo Knowles is a visual artist working with installation, sculpture, video, performance, and writing. Her work follows two main trajectories of research; the use of the abject/disgust as a political force against modes of discrimination-- centering around embracing that which makes us animal and “disgusting” to foster empathy and self-awareness. It relates to feminism, the body and human behavior. This research leads into a critical examination of the relationship between humans and non-human species, specifically in Western European societies, searching for ways to mend and re-create these relationships in the midst of ecological crisis. Her work delves into psychological methods, using humor and emotion to break down taught frameworks of discrimination and exploitation. It is conceptual at the core but culminates in uncanny sculptures and performances where material exploration and artistic transformation are central.