Jason Adams

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

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Jacob’s ladder

My body of work is influenced by aspects of my heritage as British, St. Helenian and South African as mixed raced, under the deemed social construct as being “coloured”. Furthermore, the exploration of my identity as a narrative in my paintings, considers the context of labour from generation to generation compared to the model of the western cape’s manual labour system of marginalised economic groups throughout south Africa’s post-colonial state. It is part of my journey to acknowledge my grandfathers occupation as an asphalter, who made roads on the campus where I’ve had the privilege to study on; my father as a vibracrete fence maker and my mother, breadwinner to my family and primary school teacher.

An element to my work is exploring monuments of labour on St. Helena Island such as Jacob’s ladder, commissioned by the Dutch East India company and buildings with hybrid interiors. an example being one pub in James town St Helena, that have used Victorian style interiors with the wreckage of an old ship. This really speaks to me and my work being a hybrid of miniature  vibracrete fence moulds in which its purpose and functionality changes with intent to act as a Victorian picture frame as its decorative frame element suggests, cast in concrete like a fence would be. Id like to reimagine connotations that this fused object holds, while being a canvas for my paintings.

 My paintings explore undertones of western and colonial iconography of this so called larger than life figure “St. Helena’’, but reimagined taken into consideration of St. Helena’s diverse cultural hotspot of mixed raced peoples. As I have been constantly reminded of colonial symbolism in the badge of my high school or the concrete crests of buildings found throughout Cape town. I have seen symbolism in my paintings to be of importance to exploring ambiences of the mentality that it brings to spaces. My paintings as surreal spaces of place, people and influenced iconography that aims to reinterpret the biblical phrase “Jacob’s ladder” found in the book of Genesis, simply meaning the walk to a better life and the labour of this walk,  literally compared to the Jacob’s ladder on St. Helena. The stair way that extends the side of a mountain. In purpose I aim to extend agency to the labourer. A means to which in my own experiences as a local muralist, I have struggled to compare attitudes of industry as ordinary painter to academic value.