FLUX 2021 - Jessica Castillo-Romero

Email: jessicacastillo685@gmail.com
Instagram: @jess.cr.16

Jessica Castillo-Romero is a fine artist who is fascinated in exploring themes of introspection within her work. Recently she has become interested in exploring introspection in relation to memory and nostalgia. While she is a multidisciplinary artist, Jessica’s present work explores these themes more intensely through the creation of soft sculptures. Her current work-in-progress, titled Am I Projecting Again? explores the way in which reminiscing becomes a different experience the further back you reflect upon. Her work specifically draws upon the five stages of her own life: baby, child, preteen, teenager and young adult. Her soft sculptures will take the shape of various bottles one finds in their shower (i.e. shampoo, conditioner, body wash) linking the experience of reflection to the state of thoughtfulness one tends to enter while taking a shower.

Artist Statement

The Am I Projecting Again? series links bathroom products to the introspective experience of showering. Though shampoo and conditioner bottles, for example, hold little emotional weight in the process of reflection, they are used as a canvas to project my personal memories and feelings onto. My memories become interwoven through my recollection of them, warped into feelings and glimpses of moments I’ve already lived through. I think of myself as a child talking to my friends at recess as I think of myself in high school constantly reading any book I could get my hands on. The threads that tie these incredibly different periods of time together call out to me. Threads only I can see and fully understand, because they are symbols I have developed when thinking of distinct feelings and they are metaphors I have rewritten over and over in an attempt to understand what I’m thinking.

The change and growth that has occurred in one major phase of my life to the next almost makes the past versions of myself unrecognizable. But old feelings can still be so strong, that for a moment I remember how it felt scandalous to be awake at 12:00 a.m. and how pitch black 9:00 p.m. felt. In that sense, I see my past stitch itself together to bring me to who I am today.

Interview

How have your lived experiences informed your artistic practice?

As somebody who has grown up not only plus sized but being raised by my immigrant parents, I find myself thinking about personal identity a lot. As a girl, I often felt at odds with what society was demanding of me, because my body has never been small. And on top of that, coming from my mother who emigrated from Cuba and my father who emigrated from El Salvador, but being born and raised in Canada, I have felt a lot of cultural dissonance. As a child, I wanted to see people like me in media, which is why my work tends to be in relation to my struggles with my identity.

What does your work aim to say?

For my thesis work, I wanted to portray a state of deep introspection. I think that there is a lot to be said for the various phases of a person’s life. I would not have become who I am today without my childhood informing my teen years, which in turn have impacted who I am today. I carry the old versions of myself within my memory. I also find the experience of reflection and nostalgia to feel different depending on the period I reflect upon. Some memories have become twisted through time, distorting happiness into a much more bittersweet feeling.

What is your usual artmaking process like? What are your preferred mediums?

I tend to start with a conceptual idea. The story I am trying to tell is the most important aspect of my artmaking. From there, I decide what materials fit the narrative best. Lately, I have gravitated towards creating soft sculptures because of how intimate and playful they can be. The process of sewing feels very apt for my tendency to express my introspection through my art. There is a lot of tenderness, as well as frustration, that comes with working so laboriously with fabric.

What made you want to pursue art?

As a child I found myself profoundly impacted by fictional stories. Whether it be a Disney animated feature film or a novel, I felt inspired by how worlds could be built up from scratch. Life could be given to words and drawings in such a compelling way. Though I was not sure as a child what I wanted to pursue in terms of a career, I always knew that I wanted to be able to be a storyteller.

What are your plans for the future? How do you see your work evolving?

I would love to study animation in order to get a job in the field. A lot of my personal inspiration has spurred from various forms of animation, and it is a huge career goal of mine to be able to be part of creating worlds and characters with a lot of depth, diversity and intrigue. There is a lot of power that comes from healthy and diverse stories being told, and I find it inspiring.