Fiona Somers
she/her
OAKUM / JENKEM
My practice mainly consists of oil painting and installation, grouping images on loose, pierced and perforated canvas in spatial webs of hemp rope and weighted attachments. At a point in time where subculture is reduced to style and style is reduced to digital images, I primarily work with and through photography.
Traditional techniques are used to describe overexposed and intimately cropped photos, flooding out information with light and omitting what may be crucial parts of a narrative. Working predominantly with signs, the spatial network is a tactile attempt at unlocking perspectives and potential meaning while eliciting visceral sensations of tension and pressure.
OAKUM / JENKEM explores digital, historical, and local scenes and subcultures as the thorny fruit of personal and collective pain.
Shot from collaborative project titled Persist, oil on pierced canvas. Completed in 2023 with Tallon in Strand Street, Dublin.
Echolalia, oil on pierced canvas, hemp rope & hardware, experimental installation in NCAD
(left to right) Orthodogtics, Dancer, Tender Moment, Flesh Grips, Exemplar, studio installation shot by Julia Filip
Detail of Echolalia and Orthodogtics, oil on canvas, eyelets and hardware