Jem Crook produces work to create a quiet stillness; a space to think about contexts and histories of family and wider culture. His work focuses majorly on colonial histories of Ireland and the migration of his grandparents to Britain. The displacement, diaspora, leaving home, missing, loss, dislocation.
The dislocation and relocation from a place considered ‘home’ alters how that place is perceived; how it is remembered by the people who have left and how it is retold to following generations of family who may never experience its reality. A physical detachment from a cultural home is able to be passed on. A dislocated identity is inherited and a form of the culture is experienced remotely. Both identity and culture can be taught and passed on through oral tellings of histories, or even through experiences with objects. As with song or storytelling, objects can hold narratives which warp and alter with the surroundings and contexts that they are placed within. Dedicated space is left within these narratives by Crook in his work, both physically and contextually, allowing opportunity for narratives to be deduced at the liberty of the individual viewer.
Jem Crook lives and works in London
b. 2000
Education
Slade School of Fine Art, BA. Degree show 16th to 23rd May 2024.
Warwickshire School of Art, Foundation in Fine Art, 2018-2019.
Exhibitions
2024
Rift, 10 Greatorex Street, London, 8th-10th February
2023
Interim, Candid Arts Trust, London
2022
Autoluminescent, St Giles Cripplegate Church, London, 2nd December
Juice Box, RuptureXIBIT, London, 11th November