Jessica Cadkin

Artist Statement:

Nature plays a predominant role in my work, work that is fundamentally informed by and is a direct response to a kinship humans have toward the natural world. Biophilia describes the "…connections human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life,” and the biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an “…instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems.” The artwork I create reacts to this concept through references to the landscape, fauna, and flora of the natural world. Through sculpture and installation, I explore the unexpected forms and compositions the world around us is capable of revealing.

My work is inspired by aerial images of the earth, especially the unusual shapes bodies of water take from such a high vantage point. I take these aerial images (such as watershed systems, lakes, rivers) and further abstract these already abstracted shapes to create sewn and stuffed sculptural pieces; works that are freed from their geographical and cartographic reference.

I also recently recreated guns as soft sculpture. I took these hard, threatening objects and transformed them into simple yielding fabric pieces: I disarmed the firearm.

Jessica Cadkin was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in Napa, California. She received a BA in Sculpture and Painting from San Francisco State University. Her work has appeared in several group shows at spaces throughout northern California including the Headlands Center for the Arts, di Rosa Preserve, Root Division Gallery, Pro Arts Gallery, Gallery Route One, and Bedford Gallery.