Hailey Jensen

Artist Statement

Humanity, as a collective, tends to forget things. Our phones, wallets, keys, holidays; many things tend to slip our minds. These moments are accidental; maybe the forgetter was in a rush, had a lot going on, or simply succumbed to a bug in their brain’s biological code. The human brain is not equipped to keep track of the massive number of stimuli that exist in the world. I create work that focuses on the forgotten things, both he thoughts and the physical objects that fall through the cracks.

 

In Dissolution of Identity, I am exploring those things that we must forget and cast aside to grow and thrive, the things necessarily discarded from our minds and ourselves in the creation of our own identity. Turmoil and Tranquility, an acrylic and metal assemblage, discusses the start of the journey, looking at a seemingly ordered outside that devolves into a chaotic reality the further one delves within. Surpass discusses the necessity of cutting away the parts of our identity that no longer work for us, while reaching out towards a better future as we learn and grow. Finally, Dissolution depicts the end of the process, the dissolving of the parts of ourselves into something unrecognizable at present, but from which we can grow and create a new, better reality for ourselves. In this body of work, I have created three pieces that dance between digital and physical, inviting the viewer to evaluate their sense of self and the way they perceive identity.