Jessica Luostarinen & Conor Ackhurst: Artists in residence

Jessica Luostarinen (b. 1993, Finland) explores acts of social performance and quiet ritual through a symbolic, emotionally charged lens. Her paintings are not descriptive but interpretive; forms through which identity is staged, softened, obscured, or remade. In one body of work, Luostarinen revisits the mythology of Joan of Arc, drawing from behind-the-scenes imagery of a mid-20th century film production. These paintings capture moments not of action but of preparation; an actress donning armour, pausing before the role overtakes her. It is not Joan the saint we see, but the process of becoming her. In these liminal scenes, Luostarinen probes the tension between self and symbol, exploring what it means to fabricate an identity, to be armoured, especially now. The armour in these paintings is not purely historical or theatrical-it is personal. For Luostarinen, it becomes a metaphor for the layered defences we construct to navigate the world, particularly as women.

In a parallel series, Luostarinen turns to another form of quiet performance, the folded napkin. This simple object, ubiquitous across dining cultures, becomes a site of aesthetic and social charge. The folds suggest individual personalities: aspirational, elegant, humble, theatrical, to name some examples, and collectively, they reflect a subtle choreography of hospitality. In one large-scale painting, she places multiple styles side by side, allowing a direct comparison between folds; some angular, some ornate, some folded with care, others minimalist. These arrangements echo social codes, unspoken rituals, and the aspiration to elevate a moment through care. They are portraits, not of people, but of gestures, places, and the values they quietly perform.

Conor Ackhurst (b. 1995, England) continues his ongoing exploration of digital fragility, environmental compression,and the architectures of disappearance. One series of sculptural works merges cast bronze RAID hard drive units with a wooden model boat. The bronze-cast drives, based on a LaCie desktop storage system, evoke the paradox of digital memory, structures promising permanence and order, yet inherently fragile and vulnerable to entropy. Impermanence cloaked in solidity. Attached to this mass of preserved memory is the boat, a weathered model racing yacht discovered at an antique market in Mexico City. Research revealed that the model replicates Young America, a high-profile yacht which famously cracked open and nearly sank during the 1999 America’s Cup after encountering severe structural stress in heavy seas. Like the unseen forces that fractured the yacht’s hull, here the model drifts precariously through a dense, eroding field of collective memory, a sea of archived information made strangely solid yet perilously delicate. Together, the boat and drives form a hybrid monument to obsolescence, technological faith, and the increasingly volatile terrain of the archive.

Hide (2025) - a sculptural and video installation - explores camouflage, visibility, and the constructed dynamics of perception. Created in collaboration with artisan Abraham Frutis Martínez, three reclaimed wooden rail sleepers, stained deeply by oil, are hydro-dipped using commercial Realtree camouflage patterns drawn from hunting and military culture. Standing upright as artificial tree trunks, these sculptures evoke an abstracted forest, each form wrapped in an image of multiple trees. Alongside these sculptures, Ackhurst has begun production on a new film, shot on RED cinema cameras in collaboration with director Diego Gaxiola, capturing a subtle choreography between birds of prey, a pair of falcons and a pair of hawks, and the sculptural environment. The birds’ movements within the constructed setting heighten tensions around concealment, observation, and controlled visibility, further blurring boundaries between natural instinct and artificial staging. Ackhurst plans to continue and expand this film project upon returning to the UK.