Artist Statement/ Biography

Jemila MacEwan is a Scottish-born artist who works with sculpture and performance. MacEwan’s work seeks out an empathetic approach to the destructive impulses of humanity. Using sculpture and performance in intimate communication with the environment, MacEwan inserts herself within the landscape to participate in the constant process of change and exchange between culture and the natural world. In recent works, she has mythologized various destructive forces – meteorites, volcanoes, fault-lines and melting glaciers – as a way to understand what it means to be human in the age of the Holocene Extinction. These phenomena act as a counterpoint to the conscious and unconscious impact humans have on each other and on the planet they live.

--

MacEwan received a Masters of Contemporary Art at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has exhibited extensively within Australia and the USA and is a consistent collaborator with members of the New York Dance community. MacEwan has participated in many international residencies and is the founder of the performance process residency Land Falls. Significant exhibitions include The Australian Consulate-General (NYC), Pioneer Works (NYC), Skaftfell (Iceland), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NYC), and will be a featured artist of the Castlemaine State Festival in 2019 (Australia). She has been generously supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Dame Joan Sutherland Fund, the Ian Potter Cultural Council, BRIC and the Graduate Women of Victoria.