Jessie Renew is a mixed-media artist based in Philadelphia. She recycles discarded and devalued household objects into bright, playful sculptural collages. Her work gives new meaning and context to unwanted objects and elevates them into fine art. Her Park Towne Place Artist in Residence exhibition is on view at The Artist Studio Gallery at Parke Towne Place.
What does a day in the studio look like for you?
“My creative process really starts with collecting stuff and using that as inspiration. So, the first thing I do when I get to the studio at Park Towne Place is check my collection box for donations. I spend some time taking things apart, cutting them up, sawing off the legs, and just playing around with different ideas of how to use the stuff in unexpected ways. From there I organize things into categories, separating larger items that will be used as the structure of my pieces and smaller things like 'string things', 'objects', 'paper', etc. Then I get my glue gun plugged in, and my tools out and work on my current pieces or maybe start a new one. I really use my intuition to lead me - marrying objects based on color, shape, texture or "meaning." I take plenty of snack breaks, wander around the art galleries, and meet and talk to residents. I work until I get a little itch that my creative battery is running low, and then get everything put away as quickly as possible, so that I can go home and recharge my battery for the next day!”
What do you find meaningful about discarded household objects?
“As people we assign value and meaning to things, whether it be for how useful they are, beautiful they are or their actual worth. And, this changes over time, in fact, really quite quickly. We are all involved in a cycle of acquiring and discarding, moving through different ideas of what we care about. Along the way, the objects we have and use take on a type of spiritual life of their own. By decontextualizing these things from their original purpose and environment, they can be appreciated differently - for their color, texture, shape, or for the nostalgia and associations they trigger. I think of my pieces as a kind of reliquary, where things that have, at some point, been completely devalued can be reborn, rehomed, and reimagined as the greatest, most valuable thing - art! In some small way, this rescuing is also a way to keep things out of landfills, a type of high-brow recycling.”
How did you plan to use your residency at Park Towne Place?
“This residency was particularly interesting for me because my work deals largely with the private, domestic lives of people - what they buy, use and consume in their homes. This residency, being in a place where people live, lends itself particularly to collecting the type of stuff associated with the vernacular. I am interested in what might be similar about the consumption and discarding patterns of the people that live in this particular place - so all of the work I make as part of my residency will be composed of items donated by residents and saved from going to the landfill. There is a type of beautiful chaos in this, not knowing at all what I will get! From my first day, the magic of this was evident, everything I found was red, gray or black.”
What do you find inspiring about Park Towne Place?
“I draw inspiration from people and how they live and consume. It is fun to see the daily deluge of packages flooding the mail room, and mostly gone by the next morning. And then, the dumpsters filled with boxes! My work is about playing a role in this cycle and stream and really no other place condenses the incoming and outgoing of stuff in one place so well. The location of Park Towne Place, in the middle of all of Philadelphia's great museums and venerated public buildings also has a power over my creative practice. It feels a bit like the Duchamp pieces next door are watching me, I need to work in a way that does their presence justice.”
How does magic and manifestation affect your practice?
“My work depends on a big universal magic to bring me the stuff that will work together to create an art piece. Then, I use my internal magic to really lead me in figuring out how to connect this stuff - weaving, sewing, glueing, affixing in all kinds of weird ways. It isn't a learned "craft," it is really figuring out as I go, with no known precedence or expectation - very freeing! I think the joy of working this way comes through in the energy of my work. Sometimes, I reach an impasse and need something to finish a piece, make it work formally or physically, and I really ask for it, explicitly. The process of manifesting, simply asking for what you need, has a power that constantly amazes me. It is so weirdly simple, I will say "I need a sort of mesh like thing" and go out for a walk and find a discarded soccer goal. Somehow, there are forces beyond human understanding working to bring us everything we need.”
What materials or objects have recently been your favorite to work with?
“Toys, shoe laces, anything clear, mesh produce bags, eye glasses, dog crates, laundry baskets, pleather, bungie cord, bags, polyester, beads, tape, mumus, rhinestones, plastic things, anything with holes, belts, anything with words on it, and most of all - tchotchkes!”
