Residencies at ]ps[

2012

Jade Blackstock + James Jordan Johnson

︎︎︎ PSX: a decade of performance art in the UK

(original copy)
“We hosted the artists Jade Blackstock and James Jordan Johnson for a shared residency month at ]performance s p a c e[ in June 2021. Jade and James’ projects are ongoing and this page will be updated with further information at a later time.” 

James Jordan Johnson. Photo by Alex Gulino.

James Jordan Johnson (b. 1997, London, UK) is an artist working in performance and sculpture. He explores how personal/collective memory and mythmaking informs historical experiences within Black life (specifically Afro-Caribbean life). Through this, he uses his practice as a way to think about the embodiment and unnamable ties between objects and people within life-cycles.

Cummndazz, Jade Blackstock, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.

Jade Blackstock (B. 1993, Birmingham, UK) is a British Jamaican performance artist. Her work explores questions of the body and identity in relation to historical, cultural and personal events and experiences. Her practice is particularly anchored in exploring Afro-Caribbean customs, rituals and material, and attempts to discuss how prejudices and colonial histories continue to impact the lives and current representations of Black people and people of colour. She seeks to highlight how the body, material and space have shared capabilities of holding, transferring and embodying collective pasts or memories, which bears importance in our understanding of selves and each other. Themes of race and Black identity, feminism, ownership, class and loss are present in her work.