M.A.M.A. Issue n.53

Art

My work is driven by personal experience and its connection to contemporary and historical issues. Overall, my work addresses the complexities and intricacies of care and identity in our current culture. I seek to make challenging experiences accessible to those without the same somatic knowledge while still engaging in conversation and confrontation.

My recent work is mostly divided into two ways:
1. Focus on the daily lived experiences of women; their triumphs, their struggles, and everything in between in several bodies of work which reflects on the complicated spaces, both personal and public, that women inhabit and move through.
2. Exploration of the complexities of identity where family history, cultural and social influence, politicization, and personal desire are both at odds and overlapping. In this exploration, identity becomes a fact-based excavation of personal history alongside a kind of fictional mythological world-building.

In Living Hysterically each work presents a picture of the past, present, and future tied to the specific story of a woman or girl. These stories provide an entry point into the personal experiences, both positive and negative, that feature pain and fill the lives of women. Against a backdrop of social and political history, the work illustrates the forces working in women’s lives that create a spectrum of violence, from the mundane to the traumatic. This work claims space for women’s stories too often denied in public, creating representations that are more complex and thoughtful than the usual discourse. Moving through the installation becomes an exercise in empathy moving towards understanding and change.

In my practice, I incorporate layered, labor-intensive drawings, collage, sculpture, performance, et al, into fully realized mixed media works and immersive installations. Within my work, the viewer is met with bodily experiences that mirror the complexities of the stories I share, with a focus on shared knowledge, awareness, empathy, and change.

The Endeavor, beloved mother, left her place on April 23rd, 2021. Although only shortly a part of her community and space, she brought joy, happiness, confusion, and excitement in her brief time. Unfortunately, she also faced violence and had to be rescued from her place of rest by a loving and supportive community.

The Endeavor was meant for many things, including Labor, Failure, Death, Violence, Care, Community, Rest, and Love.

More about the Jessica:

Jessica Caldas is a Puerto Rican American, Florida and Georgia based, artist, advocate, and activist. Her work connects personal and community narratives to larger themes and social issues. Caldas has participated in numerous emerging artist residencies, including the Atlanta Printmakers Studio in 2011, MINT Gallery’s Leap Year Program from 2012-2013, The Creatives Project form 2018-2019, Vermont Studio Center in 2020, and was the Art on the Atlanta Beltline AIR in 2020-2021. Caldas was awarded The Center for Civic Innovations 2016 Creative Impact award, named Creative Loafing’s Best of ATL Artist for 2016 and 2015, received the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs Emerging Artist Award in Visual Arts for 2014, and was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation’s Emerging Artist Award in 2014. Her work has been featured at Burnaway, ArtsAtl, Creative Loafing Atlanta, Atlanta Magazine, Simply Buckhead, and more. Her work has been shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA and is included in the collections of Kilpatrick Townsend, The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Kyoto International Community House.

In her advocacy work, Caldas has spent time lobbying for policy at the local level in Georgia and spent time with the YWCA Georgia Women’s Policy Institute at the 2016 general assembly to assure the passage of the Rape Kit Bill and in 2016 to stop HB 51 in 2017, a bill that would have harmed the safety of sexual assault survivors on college campuses.

Caldas received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at Georgia State University in 2019 and received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2012. She currently runs Good News Arts, a small community arts space and gallery in rural North Central Florida.

http://jessicacaldas.com

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