Artist statement

Jessica Sarrazin’s photographic works are of outdoor views, such as landscapes glimpsed from train windows or images of the night sky.

She uses unresolved photographs which she alters with hand sewing. By turns, these alterations appear to impose a tenuous order, suggest movement, or add an ethereal quality to the photograph. Her images are cinematic in their framing and have a quiet and intense sense of drama.

Biography

An Associate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (2001), Jessica Sarrazin has exhibited her work professionally since 1998. Completing her MFA in 2005 at the University of Windsor, she then went on to live in Seoul, South Korea, and eventually returned to her hometown of Vankleek Hill, ON. She then served as the director/curator of Galerie Arbor Gallery for eight years.

She has received project funding from the Toronto Arts Council, the Laidlaw Foundation, The Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Ontario Arts Council among others. She has worked for the Canadian Opera Company, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Ryerson University.

Her work has been exhibited in many solo exhibitions, including Galerie Youn in Montreal, Inter-Access and Trinity Square Video in Toronto. She has participated in numerous group shows in Canada, including at the Ontario Legislature, Cube Gallery in Ottawa, Artspeak Gallery in Windsor, ON, and both the York Quay Gallery and Peter Richmond Gallery in Toronto.

Jessica lives in rural Eastern Ontario, close to the border with Quebec. Her work is influenced by a strong sense of place, the concept of home and the domestic arts. She started sewing at age 6, influenced by the women in her family and began taking photographs soon after. While studying at OCADU she began to combine the two. She uses this medium with a diaristic approach to ‘save’ moments for posterity.