Underneath it all
Jess Blandford, 2024
Oil paint on ready-made shelf
20 x 60 x 15cm
Not for sale
My contribution to a collaborative project called SHELVED with the Second Shift Art Collective.
The shelf is empty. Usually a space to keep precious things safe. To show off prized possessions. The shelf itself goes unnoticed. An everyday, mundane structure at eye level. So ordinary, you might walk past without even seeing it. But bend and twist your body, duck and peer beneath. You’ll spot something seeping down the struts that hold this shelf up. On the underside is an oil painting. Layers of gestural marks, pools of colour, messy scribbles and erasures. Abstract expressionism - traditionally full of machismo and high cultural value - here hidden. Trying to pay tribute to the invisible work of support. Physical, mental & emotional loads often carried without being seen or valued. The unpaid labour of care that quietly holds up global economies, as well as our everyday lives.
The Second Shift Art Collective is a group of women artists who have developed their art practices later in life, following other careers & responsibilities. Throughout 2024 each of the 12 artists in the group are invited to make work in response to the idea of an ordinary domestic shelf.
Each month one artist brings her ‘shelf’ to the group crit for discussion, and writes a short text to accompany the work. In this way the project accumulates over a year, with the collection of ‘shelves’ influenced by previous ideas and the ongoing discussion. The project will be seen unfolding throughout the year on Instagram and will culminate in an exhibition of all 12 works in 2025.
Follow on instagram @second.shift_art.collective
