A sequence of self portraits by San Francisco-based artist Jamie L. Luoto. “I Consider in Ghosts” is a deeply private exploration of the aftermath of sexual assault and repeated sexual trauma. The work is an try and articulate the depth to which these acts of violence — in addition to the accompanying dismissal, disbelief, and shaming — impression people. Manipulating a basic European type, Luoto reframes the spectacle of visible pleasure to beguile and entrap the viewer in a way akin to the inescapability of residing in a physique haunted by what was performed to it:
“I imagine in ghosts. I imagine those that weren’t and received’t be believed. I see the ghosts that hang-out us…. In these works I discover my psyche and expertise with complicated post-traumatic stress dysfunction (C-PTSD), blurring the road between exterior presentation and inner actuality to deliver to mild the unseen accidents of sexual trauma that invade and hang-out thoughts and physique. Signs resembling flashbacks, nightmares, dissociation, and intrusive ideas and pictures are urged utilizing mirrors, portraits inside portraits, and phallic kinds, resembling condoms and erect sheets, which materialize as ghosts all through the work. At instances the ghosts’ presence takes on a swarm-like high quality, suggesting a looming risk. Felines act as familiars; bearing witness and embodying the topic’s emotional state.”
Jamie Luoto is one in every of 60 artists and photographers featured in our newest guide, Care. She will even be exhibiting work with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery this 12 months, together with 2 of the items that seem in our guide. See extra from “I Consider in Ghosts” under.