D O M E S T I C P E R F O R M A N C E S
Jaleesa Johnston’s work explores the ruptured and queer existence of the Black female body as both subject and object through performance, video, photography, sculpture, collage and drawing. Creating and contesting historical and social truths, mythologies and narratives, Jaleesa uses bodies, places, spaces, objects, sounds and movement together in ways that harness their symbolism and embrace the complexities and vulnerabilities of human experiences. Working with her body as material, Jaleesa uses its malleability and symbolism to conjure new narratives that suggest Blackness as a liminal site for personal and communal transformation. She is particularly concerned with articulating gestures of the body as a fragmented language that can be used to voice narratives of fugitivity, resistance and freedom.
Domestic Performances, a video compilation of performances based on her photo series, Domesticity (2013-2015), is reflective of the artist’s ongoing iterative practice. Completed leading up to and during her MFA degree, Domesticity uses photography and performance to draw parallels between the interiority of the artist’s mind with that of her living space. Ruminating on buried histories of mental health within her own family line, Jaleesa uses solitude, domestic spaces and her body to think through lineages of silent struggle.
Jaleesa Johnston
Jaleesa Johnston is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and arts administrator currently living and working in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MA from the University of Bergen in Norway. Jaleesa has been the recipient of the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Centrum’s Emerging Artist Residency, Open Signal’s New Media Fellowship, Performance Works NW’s Alembic Artist Residency and an Artist Trust Fellowship Award. She has shown work with Oregon Contemporary, PICA, Converge 45 and Gallery 114 in Portland, OR, and Wa Na Wari and METHOD Gallery in Seattle, WA. Jaleesa is an independent curator and works as Head of Public Programs and Engagement in the Learning and Community Partnerships Department at the Portland Art Museum. Her curatorial interests and research include the residual imprint of ephemeral works in institutional spaces, with a focus on Black performance work.