Jessicka Addams first gained attention as the front-woman of bands Scarling and Jack Off Jill. Recently she’s made the transition from musician to artist, creating striking, gothic and often rabbit-inspired works of art.She tells us all about her new exhibition, Little Grey Secrets.
SS: What’s behind the title, Little Grey Secrets, for your latest exhibition?
JA: The title is a play-on the phrase ‘little white lies’. Little grey secrets are the things you say to yourself when no one else is listening. The things that would scare others, the ones that are soft and rotted, the ones you poke at until they burst.
SS: At first glance your art looks quite cute and whimsical – until you look closer to discover all kinds of dark undertones. Was this your general intention, or a by-product of another objective?
JA: It was certainly my intention for my work to have a whimsical nature. We could all use a little more whimsy in our lives these days.
SS: Was Little Grey Secrets inspired by your own, personal ‘little grey secrets’ or was it more a concept that you think is present in everyone?
JA: It certainly started as a very personal thing, but as the work progressed I noticed my friends and family gravitating to the idea. I think self-doubt and self-deprecating thoughts are present in even the most outwardly confident person.
SS: When starting a project, what is your initial process?
JA: I tend to start with a theme and a few keys ideas and I create around those central ideas and pieces until an entire show is conceived.
SS: Can you elaborate on how you create your pieces?
JA: If I told you, I’d have to kill you – two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead! I have a few secrets – my process is one of them.
SS: You’ve been described as the ‘patron saint of self injury’ – would you say that your art acts as a different form of catharsis?
JA: Rather than slicing myself with razors on stage I slice open my characters to reveal their inner workings. It’s much less messy for the viewer but just a painful for my psyche. It’s a win-win situation for everybody involved.
SS: Tell us about your fascination with rabbits…
JA: For years, I had been noticing rabbits occurring in unlikely places in my everyday life. One of my first happy memories is the Easter Bunny, I was also fascinated with the White Rabbit in Alice In Wonderland and Bre’r Rabbit as a child. More recently, rabbits just kept hopping up in my life! It just felt right to use the bunny mask as a central theme tying all of my work together. The Easter Bunny has roots that go back to pre-Christian, Anglo-Saxon history. The holiday was originally a pagan celebration that worshipped the goddess Eastre. She was the goddess of fertility, springtime and her earthly symbol was a rabbit—a perfect symbol to use when covering artists’ work I find sacred.
SS: Did you ever feel that your art would be conceived as especially controversial?
JA: As time has moved on and contemporary art has moved with it, controversy has always managed to keep up. I see how certain people might be disturbed by some of my pieces. I Never Learned To Dance, for example, depicts a nude child hanging from a golden noose. It is interesting to look back at what seemed controversial. There was a time when Picasso could shock byjust exhibiting female nudes that appeared to be a group of prostitutes. A group of nude prostitutes doesn’t seem so shocking now. Eventually controversial artists are absorbed into the establishment, but it’s always exciting to be considered dangerous or controversial by just expressing your inner dialogue visually.
SS: Do you think that your involvement in the music industry hindered or helped your transition into the art scene?
JA: If anything I think being involved in the music industry has made me more business savvy, which is indeed helpful. It has prepared me for disappointment and intense criticism. I think what I do now is just a continuation of what I’ve done musically. It’s been a natural progression for me as I always viewed creating music as art and I always planned on attending art school after high school, but in the end couldn’t afford it. I never though that it would take me almost 15 years to get back to creating art with my hands.
SS: Have you found it hard to get taken seriously as an artist without getting thrown in the ‘musician-turned-artist-turned-whatever’ box?
JA: I think being a musician has worked to my advantage. Mostly because when I show at galleries I have a built-in fan base. This often perplexes gallery owners who aren’t familiar with my bands or don’t know that I’m a musician.
SS: If you could choose one thing for your art to achieve, what would it be?
JA: I’d like my art to feed the hungry, cure the sick, inspire the downtrodden, legalise gay marriage and marijuana throughout the United States, start a riot, invent a time machine and a new flavor of vodka, inspire a new cuisine, save the rainforest and incite world peace… and these are just some short-term goals.
Words: Valentine Lane
