Jai: Explorations in Identity and Art

Kate's 9th Fall by Jai Gilchrist as June Gillert. Oil on canvas. 130cm x 90cm

Jai's artistic practice is a profound exploration of identity through the dual lenses of tattooing and conceptual art, each medium informing and enriching the other. As a tattooist, Jai is deeply engaged in the performativity of her craft. She views the act of tattooing as a collaborative, transformative process, where the dynamic between artist and client is as integral as the ink itself. This interaction not only shapes the physical artwork but also plays a crucial role in the evolution of the wearer's personal identity and narrative. Jai's approach highlights the deep emotional and physical commitment involved, emphasizing tattoos as significant markers on the journey of self-discovery and expression.

Parallel to her work in tattooing, Jai's endeavors in conceptual art focus on the digital representation of artists. In a striking critique of the art world's dynamics, she established the fictitious Curbar Ridge Association of Artists and Painters (C.R.A.A.P.). Through this project, Jai crafted a series of online personas and artworks, creating a collective that seemingly exhibited and interacted within real-world art spaces. By hiring actors to represent these artists and negotiating gallery shows, she blurred the lines between reality and perception, challenging viewers and participants to question the authenticity and integrity of artistic identity in the digital age.

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Jai's unique position as an older, female, white immigrant in the traditionally male-dominated tattoo industry allows her to navigate her environment from a perspective of relative invisibility. This type of cultivated invisibilty and outsider status affords her a distinctive vantage point from which to observe and reflect on the nuances of cultural identity and the pervasive influence of media and societal expectations on personal symbolism. Her artistic inquiries delve into the concept of the body as a shared societal canvas, examining how personal and collective identities are crafted and perceived.

Dreamtime triptych by Jai Gilchrist as Stella Jacks. Three canvases each 1m x 2.2m

Her acclaimed project "Form and Flow - Body as Story" beautifully encapsulates her thematic interests and artistic philosophy. This work, which garnered international recognition and the Best Freehand 2022 award at the Rites of Passage Tattoo Festival, is a testament to her innovative approach to narrative and identity through body art. It is here that Jai’s art transcends the typical boundaries of tattooing, inviting clients to co-create their narratives, thereby weaving their identities together with the art that adorns their bodies. These tattoos, living with the bearer, evolve as narratives that reflect personal growth and change.

Jai’s contributions to the fields of tattooing and conceptual art continue to challenge and expand the traditional boundaries of how art is experienced and understood. Her work compels both the art community and the broader public to reconsider the interactions between identity, body, and art in contemporary society.

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Form and Flow - Body as Story

"Form and Flow - Body as Story" is a groundbreaking project by renowned tattoo artist Jai Gilchrist, showcasing eight large-scale tattoo pieces. Each tattoo is a unique exploration of the personal narratives of the individual collaborators  skilfully reinterpreted by Jai into intricate works of art. Inspired by the traditions of Arabic and Chinese illustration, Jai uses the human body as her canvas, creating tattoos that reveal their detailed story elements from various perspectives, symbolizing the fluid and dynamic nature of personal identity.
 
Jai Gilchrist’s project transcends traditional tattoo artistry by emphasizing the performative nature of tattoos. The body is not just a canvas but an integral part of the storytelling process, with each piece designed to unfold its narrative as the wearer moves. This approach highlights the intimate connection between art and life and the way tattoos can both express and shape the identity of the wearer.
 
With 16 years of experience in tattooing, Jai combines technical expertise with a profound understanding of how tattoos influence identity formation. Her work delves into the role of tattoos as expressions and influencers of identity, shaped by archetypal forces present in both social and formal media.
 
The eight projects featured in "Form and Flow - the Body as Story" were developed through a collaborative process with Jai’s clients. These tattoos are more than visual art; they are deeply personal stories interpreted and illustrated by Jai. Her creative process involves eliciting narratives from her clients and integrating them with her observations, resulting in unique artistic expressions that resonate with both the wearer and the viewer.

This project invites viewers to explore the transformative power of tattoos and their ability to convey complex personal narratives. It challenges the perception of tattoos as mere decoration, presenting them instead as profound expressions of the human experience. Through "Form and Flow - the Body as Story," Jai Gilchrist invites us to see the art of tattooing as a dynamic and meaningful form of storytelling, reflecting the interplay of personal history, cultural influences, and timeless artistic traditions.

Jai Gilchrist and Amelia at the Rites of Passage Festival Awards

Amelia

Sophie

Rob

Conrad

Ben

Michael

Ade

Michelle

Curbar Ridge Association of Artists and Painters - C.R.A.A.P.

C.R.A.A.P was conceived by Jai to explore the role of online identity in shaping an artist’s oeuvre. Jai's initial interest in identity formation was sparked during and after completing a Fine Art degree when she grappled with her own identity as a painter, artist, and mother. In her first year, Jai staged a performance in which she assumed a new identity and name, which she 'wore' throughout the following three years. This journey culminated in a residency at Surface Gallery in Nottingham and the creation of the Curbar Ridge Association of Artists and Painters (C.R.A.A.P), a group of fictitious artists supposedly living and working around the Peak District of Curbar.

Over the next six years Jai created seven different artists within this group, establishing physical artworks, a website, and social media pages for each. Each artist has a distinct style and form of work, ranging from performance to painting to narrative, and each has their own history and stories implied through social media interactions and the website's history. The group exhibited together at several real-life exhibitions, where Jai hired actors to portray the artists and interact with the audience during open evenings. In most cases, even the gallery owners were unaware of the fictitious nature of the artists.

Exhibition credits for C.R.A.A.P.

2017 April - Intervention by Fairytale - Anand installation at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
2014 Nov - Breaking the Fourth Wall, Byron Cinema and Fresh Meat Collective, CRAAP represented by Jet Guthrie, James Gillert and Miss Diana Rex.
2013 Aug - Intervention by Fairytale -The Three Pips, Sydney Bienalle Festival Arts , CRAAP represented by Jet Guthrie.
2013 Jun - Intervention by Fairytale - Into the Woods, Byron Festival Hucknall, CRAAP represented by Jet Guthrie.
2012 Nov - It Is Allways Happening Outside of the Frame, curated by No Official Name, The Crocus Gallery Nottingham, CRAAP represented by June Gillert, Dianna Rex and Jet Guthrie.
2012 May – Modern Maddonas, St Georges Arts, Esher, Surry. CRAAP represented by Jet Guthrie and June Gillert
2011 Sept – Nov Platform Residency and Exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nottingham. CRAAP represented by Stella Jacks, John Siddall and Lucy Stone.
2009 Jun - Winner of the Healthcare and Bioscience INet Art Competition won by June Gillert
Members of C.R.A.A.P have also sold work through DegreeArt, London and Saatchi Online Gallery as well as at local art galleries in Nottingham, Leeds and Lincoln

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June Gillert

June was the first of Jai's ficticious characters and originally stemmed from her need to find a different identity whilst she was studying at University. June 'existed' for three years and during this time all of Jai's friend's and aquaintances knew her as June. Consequently June's work was initially driven not by her role as a character, but by Jai's own creative process. In the end however, June developed her own life in the Hope Valley and eventually passed away in 2020. Her passing was marked on the C.R.A.A.P. website by her son James.

June Gillert

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Jet Guthrie

Jai's intention in crafting the character of Jet was to explore the performative and transformative elements of site-specific artworks, particularly those that prompt the audience to interact more deliberately and reflectively. Jet was conceived as an older, intellectually-oriented artist, whose reclusive nature allowed her to remain detached and elusive to the audience. This aloof persona facilitated unexpected interventions in her art, often employing other artists as proxies to perform on her behalf.

Jet Guthrie, a mixed-media and performance artist who graduated from Southampton University in 1993, has developed a unique and compelling practice centered on the rich, symbolic world of fairy tales, with a particular focus on the concept of liminality—the threshold between the familiar and the fantastical. Her work intricately explores the delicate veil between the past and the present, using the universal language of fairy tales to uncover profound human truths and to captivate audiences in unexpected ways.

Jet’s artistic practice is characterized by her specialized interventions in urban landscapes and gallery spaces. She crafts stories that are revealed gradually, paragraph by paragraph, printed on luggage tags and discreetly placed in everyday environments. Her work can be discovered hanging from trees, attached to public bins and railings, slipped alongside clothing labels in high street stores, and occasionally within galleries or churches. These hidden fragments of narrative invite serendipitous discovery, transforming ordinary spaces into portals to the extraordinary.

Jet has also brought her distinctive approach to formal gallery settings, with directed performances at Crocus Gallery and recorded voice installations at the Fresh Meat Collective Exhibition and the Modern Madonnas exhibition. However, her most exhilarating works have been her disruptive gallery interventions, such as the "Intervention by Fairytale" at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2017 and the Sydney Biennale Festival in 2013. During these interventions, Jet anonymously installed thousands of luggage tags hanging from trees overnight, each tag bearing a paragraph of a fairy tale crafted specifically for the location. These surprise artworks invite viewers to engage with the liminal spaces between reality and imagination, leaving them to ponder the deeper truths hidden within the whimsical narratives.

Jet Guthrie’s work is a continuous exploration of the boundaries between the real and the imagined, inviting audiences to step into a world where the mundane is transformed into something magical, and where every found story offers a glimpse into the liminal spaces that exist all around us.

Jet Guthrie

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Dianna Rex

Dianna's character was designed to engage with the more painterly and abstract segments of the art market. Portrayed as a serious, introspective young woman, Dianna epitomized the archetype of the intense loner, her identity deeply intertwined with paint, patience and the natural environment. Her audience was captivated by the intricate layers and subtle nuances embedded in her resin work, discovering hidden depths and secret symbolism that resonated with their perceptions of her profound focus and artistic insight.

Miss Dianna Rex's work is a profound exploration of the physicality of paint, where the medium itself becomes as central as the landscapes and portraits she depicts. This focus on texture and materiality can be traced back to a childhood illness when long hours confined to bed led her to discover parallels between the peeling layers of paint and grime on her bedroom walls and the vivid strokes of the French Impressionists, as seen in a book she was given during that time.

After earning her degree in art from Dartington College of Art in 2003, Dianna developed a body of work that pushed the boundaries of conventional painting. She began painting on unconventional surfaces, treating the paint in ways that highlighted the objecthood of both the painted surface and the body as object, creating a dialogue between the physicality of the paint and the subjects it portrayed. During this period, she employed the Oblique Strategies cards, devised by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, to introduce randomness and challenge into her creative process, allowing these external prompts to shape her artistic decisions.

Street art influenced Dianna’s work post-graduation, but in a unique way. Her distressed and textured pieces became part of the urban landscape in Derby, subtly integrated into subways and pedestrian bridges. These works were so finely attuned to their surroundings that they almost disappeared, merging with the environment in a way that blurred the lines between art and the everyday.

Since relocating to a rural setting, Dianna has continued to evolve her practice, viewing herself as a conduit or cartographic link to a primal landscape that exists both within us and in the collective memory of the natural world around us. Her work now bridges the internal and external landscapes, capturing the echoes of nature’s textures and forms while continuing to explore the deeply physical nature of paint itself. Through her art, Dianna invites viewers to reconnect with the primal, tactile experiences of both the natural and the constructed worlds.

Miss Dianna Rex

James Gillert

James Gillert, a Nottingham Trent University graduate, began his creative journey with a unique approach to sculpture, constructing pieces from metal scraps collected during walks around the city, guided by entries in the periodic table. This psychogeographical method reflected John’s early interest in how environments and materials intersect to create meaning.

After relocating to London, John's practice evolved significantly. He transitioned from three-dimensional sculptures to creating images on aluminum, initially working with charcoal and later incorporating layers of pencil, paint, and engraving. His subject matter often draws on his memories of growing up in Curbar, but as his work matures, it increasingly reflects a more contemplative and observational approach.

John's current work is marked by this evolution, showcasing a deepening engagement with the subtle details of life and landscape. His pieces, rich with texture and layered techniques, invite viewers to explore the complex interplay of memory, place, and material.

James Gillert

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John Siddall

John Siddall was conceived as a pointed critique of the art world's fascination with naive painting styles. Styled as a serious painter, John exuded an air of absurdity, arriving at his gallery shows visibly self-satisfied and blissfully oblivious to the perception of his work. For the Marmite Prize, Jai had John enact a dual-layered fiction: as a fictional artist (John) who imagined and painted the moment of conception for a real artist (Sydney Nolan) as they themselves envisioned a largely mythical Ned Kelly.

John Siddal, born in Australia in 1963 and relocated to the UK in 1974, has cultivated a rich artistic practice that draws deeply from his experiences and memories. His early fascination with photography shaped his academic work in Sheffield and laid the foundation for his career in photojournalism. Since moving to the Peak District in 1997, John has transitioned into a dual role as a part-time lecturer and painter. His painting, characterized by a naïve yet sophisticated style, delves into the interplay of memory, myth, and archetype, exploring these themes within a fictive and fluid reality.

John’s work is deeply personal, often drawing imagery from his memories of Australia and examining how performative myth-making reimagines the present. His earlier works, profoundly influenced by the death of his daughter in 2006, revolved around the theme of Death and the Maiden, earning acclaim for their raw and incisive critique of contemporary media culture. More recently, John has turned his focus to Sydney Nolan’s iconic paintings of Ned Kelly, the Australian outlaw whose mythos has embedded itself in the nation’s cultural subconscious. Through his reinterpretation of Nolan’s inspiration, John questions the reality of fictional narratives, creating a Möbius loop of feedback that challenges viewers to reconsider their perceptions of history and myth.

John Siddall at the opening of the Surface Gallery exhibition

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Stella Jacks

The character of Stella is crafted as the quintessential young romantic artist, whose work is intensely emotional, strikingly painterly, and predominantly gothic—traits that tend to unsettle more traditional galleries. Through stella Jai explored the vigorously painterly and semi-abstract style typically found among recent art school graduates. Stella was positioned as expecting to make a significant impact and potentially be acquired for corporate or public collections. However, her art was overly personal and unsettling, and her physical presence elicited both sympathy and admiration for her bold aspirations. While supported by her patrons, Stella was not yet regarded as a serious contender in the art world.

In Stella Jack's universe, the canvas is not merely a surface but a vast expanse where emotion and landscape converge in a dynamic interplay of color and form. Stella engages with her art physically, channeling her whole being into each stroke, each splash of vibrant hue that orchestrates the mythical terrains she envisions. Her large canvases serve as realms where glowing colors create not just scenes but sensations, enveloping the viewer in an almost tangible atmosphere of shifting moods and narratives.

The essence of her work lies in the creation of ethereal landscapes populated by drifting, blank figures—youthful boys and girls who, caught in a liminal slumber, emerge from the depths of the paint. These characters do not confront the viewer with gazes but rather invite them to enter the dream-like realms and wander alongside them. This subtle invitation transforms the act of viewing into an act of experiencing, pulling the observer into the painted world where the boundaries between the real and the imagined blur.

Her series, "Portraits of Dark," delves deeper into the complexities of human emotion and the darker corners of human experiences. Each piece in this series begins with a hidden layer—a stark, haunting image derived from news photographs that capture moments of loss, suffering, pain, and fear. These foundational images are then veiled under layers of paint, soot, glass, and sometimes thorns, creating a textured surface that both obscures and intrigues. This tactile facade is not merely decorative but a barrier that the viewer must transcend, both visually and emotionally, to confront the underlying horrors.

Through her art, Stella seeks to evoke a visceral response from her audience, urging them to not only see but also feel the layers of meaning within each piece. The interplay of intense colors enhances the transformative experience, guiding emotions from the serene to the disturbed. Her paintings are spaces for reflection—on beauty, tragedy, and the profound resilience of the human spirit.

This journey through painted landscapes and obscured truths is her invitation to viewers: to explore, to feel, and to discover the profound narratives that lie beneath the surface, compelling us to acknowledge and confront the complexities of our existence.

Stella Jacks

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Lucy Stones

Lucy is Jai’s most playful and tongue-in-cheek creation. The striking contrast between Lucy's provocative, medically-themed paintings and her outward appearance as a kindly, talkative old librarian has endeared her to both curators and audiences alike. Jai designed Lucy to probe the limits of commercialism within art, questioning how far someone would go to unveil the next artistic novelty. Moreover, Lucy challenges the audience: Are we willing to engage in what might seem, to some, like an exploitation of our own voyeuristic tendencies?

Lucy Stones, originally celebrated for her work inspired by the landscapes of Hope Valley, has continuously evolved as an artist, revealing new layers of complexity and boldness. A pivotal show in 2011 marked a significant shift in her work, showcasing a deep fascination with sexuality and its objectification. These multi-layered pieces provoke thought and invite questions—are they autobiographical, expressions of Lucy’s fantasies, or a critique of the sexualized imagery pervasive in modern society?

Now 80 and retired to the Peak District after a career as a librarian in Yorkshire, Lucy's work reflects her ongoing exploration of the aging process, both literally and symbolically. Her unflinching focus on sexuality remains central, challenging audiences with the raw intensity of her depictions, reminiscent of a pornographic home video. Yet, the duality of Lucy’s role as both the artist and subject adds a twist that disrupts conventional views of sexuality and shock. The stark honesty in her work has often proven provocative, even overwhelming, for some viewers.

Lucy’s art is part of private collections in France and the Netherlands, and she is planning an exhibition in Europe in the near future. In her latest works, Lucy has embraced a candid approach to her financial motivations, openly addressing the necessity for her art to be profitable. Recent pieces incorporate collage elements that document the financial realities of her practice, including actuarial tables that starkly outline her life expectancy. Lucy Stones continues to push boundaries, both personal and artistic, in her fearless examination of life, sex, and survival.

Lucy Stones with her work at the opening of the Surface Gallery exhibition