jkwornson@gmail.com
http://jkwornson.com/
she/her/hers
In-person, Hybrid (online and in-person), Online

BIO 

Jess Kiel-Wornson is a Minneapolis based multimedia artist. Using sculptural installation, collaged cultural artifact, text, drawing, and performance, she addresses the insidiousness of the systems of power in our surroundings. Her work speaks to the material consequence of trauma in our bodies and buildings and asks us to reframe our conversations about goodness, success, and identity away from individuals and toward the systems that allow and promote violence toward some bodies distinctly from others. She received her MFA from University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. Recent collaborations include Touch Code (Southern Theatre 2020, Jennifer Glaws), Holy Doña (Cowles Center, Pedro Lander, 2019), Birds of the Future (Fresh Oysters, Charles Campbell, 2019), and Parking Ramp Project (Health Partners Parking Ramp, Pramilla Vasudevan, 2018).

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY & MENTORSHIP

I believe in diverse methods of making and research to guide folks to the connectivity and significance of their varied interests. Rearranging values attached to material, object/image, process, and content can actively destabilize hierarchies and challenge values. Drawing heavily on feminist and performance theories, exercises from Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, and Pablo Helguera’s work on Socially Engaged Art, I prioritize risk, context, research outside of art disciplines, frequency of making, and a consistent practice of reshaping as opposed to singular, heroic acts of isolated creation. My varied professional experience and artistic research position me at an intersection of technical skill, a deep commitment to pedagogical development, and ongoing theoretical inquiry. I am interested in engaging directly with mentees to discuss conceptual interests, their practice in context of a greater conceptual conversation outside the “art world”, and develop practical strategies for productive and relevant artistic practices.