KIND x KARST: I Think This is Where I Live
by Jess Scott

Jess Scott is an artist and filmmaker whose work is centred around the audience, is rooted in storytelling tradition, in a modern, digital world. Obsessed with how we record and are recorded, how we view and are viewed, their practice experiments with photography and film mediums as a way of exploring narrative. Their work is often biographical, observing their place within the world, and often using her art to share and process personal experiences as a tool to connect with the audience. 

'I think that’s where I live, just under and behind my eyes' - John Berger, A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor

Inspired by John Berger’s A Fortunate Man, thinking about where they exist in their own body. This exhibition comes as the artist’s grandmother developed vascular dementia. Conversations became shorter and places and timelines became muddled. Almost as if her life had been turned on its end and was being viewed all at once. The film and photographic works are made up of a frantic attempt to capture and preserve the family home as it is emptied and returned to the council after 80 years.

The works explore the intersection of identity, memory, and place - and the grief when one is lost. Attempting to preserve memory in order to keep identity intact.

Jess works as a community filmmaker, evolving their film craft whilst developing ways to teach film and experimental media skills to others. She has a BA Filmmaking from Aberystwyth University, graduating in 2022 before moving back home to Plymouth. In 2024 Jess participated in the Exeter Contemporary Open with 'My Father's Daughter' - a photoseries that explored the historical pattern of women artists being erased with their father’s name. For these works, Jess shaved her head and borrowed her father’s clothing for a series of self-portraits, erasing their own identity. 

Continuing our long-standing collaboration with KARST in Plymouth, this exhibition if the fourth solo exhibition brought to Studio KIND by a KARST studioholder. The exchange encourages artistic collaboration across North Devon and Plymouth, and supports Studio KIND's ambitions to ensure that North Devon is connected with exciting and critically engaged dialogues across the South West, strengthened by KARST's invaluable organisational support. KARST was founded in 2012 by artists who wanted to develop an artist-led space in Plymouth to produce and show the best international contemporary art. It is the South West's largest independent artist-led contemporary arts gallery and studio space, renowned for provocative and experimental work. Previous KIND x KARST solo exhibitions include: Katy Richardson, Anna Boland and Tom Milnes.