‘Cosmetically
Hard State’ is a term used by body builders who obtain improved
muscle definition through dietary regimes and repetitive, ritualistic
exercise. It is in the guise of a body builder crafted in Dymo
tape that Jones introduces us to her motif figure ‘Good
to Go’.
A recurring theme is the use of layered surfaces, scraped back
to reveal the base material, flawed and fallible. The veneers
themselves are fragile, never totally allowed to obscure their
background.
The work offers a modest response to the illusory perfection of
the ‘glow-in-the-dark’ development of Canary Wharf,
an urban zone in which night is banished by the perpetual illumination
of empty skyscrapers. Simple measured portraits of no fixed identity,
miniature architectural forms and the use of Dymo tape with its
manufactured aesthetic re-compose descriptive imagery as a battle
between charisma, vanity and dissolution.
Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2001 Jones has
exhibited in group shows and has work included in the Flix portfolio,
Rubicon Gallery, Dublin. She has curated artists’ residencies
and a touring group show for Space Station Sixty Five, London.
This is her first solo show.
