Jessica Schroeder
Performance Artist & Stand-up Comedian
Provocative and truthful art intrigues me. I want to create art that ignites engagement amongst communities and incites a deeper query into existing belief systems. Human nature is rife with dichotemies that are difficult to investigate while we are active inside of them: privacy and community, individualism and society, grassroots and capitalism, etc... Art is a vehicle that allows us to stand back a bit and take a more objective view of things. What is working for humanity? What is working against us? How can we be more empowered players in our own lives? I believe in being part of a world that believes in itself rather than fearing itself. Witnessing art in its multitude of forms provides powerful opportunities to either advance or digress. There is the possibility of being seduced into more refreshing modes of thinking measured against the risk of dismissing as irrelevant any information that one finds upsetting. We as a species are fascinating, capable of both tremendous and heinous acts, most of which become conveniently categorized by a bipolar society into a "good or bad" scenario wherein it becomes repressive to use our inherent expressiveness to represent ourselves. I look at art-making as a means of observance, reflection, and reciprocation. It is the most efficient tool that I am aware of to honestly convey emotion and sentiment, the reality of a day to day existence of a group of people in a given place and time. If individuals agree amongst themselves about something portrayed in the arts, this ideal can proliferate. If they do not find commonality they can say, "Oh that's just art." But regardless, the message is out there.
