lick your teeth, they so clutch

2021
Jones, Rachel
Rachel Jones’s approach to abstraction is centred around an exploration of her own identity in relation to the depiction of Black figures in art from the eighteenth century to the present. She considers how they are understood and culturally reproduced and the potential role of these representations in dismantling power structures. Rather than repeating figurative models from history, she experiments with motifs and colour as a way to communicate ideas about the interiority of Black bodies and their lived experience. In her vibrant paintings, Jones grapples with the challenges of finding visual means to convey existential concepts. Repeating motifs and symbols create associative, even familial, relationships, underscoring their kinship as part of her ongoing investigation of identity. Abstracted forms of mouths and teeth, apparent in her work lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021, indicate a symbolic and literal entry point to the interior and the self. These oral forms emerge and recede from view, suggesting a vivid inner landscape.
  • Artwork Details: 159.5 x 199cm
  • Edition:
  • Material description: Oil pastel, oil stick on canvas
  • Credit line: © the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Thaddaeus Ropac, London
  • Theme:
  • Medium: Painting
  • Accession number: ACC13/2020

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