This week we take a look inside the studio of Jesse Darling. Darling is a U.K.-based artist who works in a range of ephemeral media including performance and film, as well as sculpture and installation. Darling’s work addresses intersecting ideas of gender, identity, and physicality.

Darling’s studio looks quite bright in this photo. Various art materials are strewn throughout the space and there’s not much furniture to speak of. There appears to be a few paintings of drawings on the wall to the right side of the image, and I can see what looks like a table saw under the ledge on the left side. Overall, the look of the space is eclectic, and suggests experimentation and exploration rather than a streamlined artistic work flow.

This reminds me a bit of studios like those of General Idea or Olek, where the artist’s works are so often site specific and performative, leaving the studio space to be treated as more a place of research, testing, and brainstorming.

It looks like there’s a large wooden piano at the far end of the room, behind Darling. The image of a piano in the studio evokes Douglas Gordon, though obviously minus the wolf. I wonder if Darling ever uses the piano in performance, or for inspiration, or simply as a distraction while dreaming up new artistic ventures.

Darling’s practice is often political and speaks to themes of social and political issues and resistance. The artist has incorporated the internet and social media into their work from time to time, using, for example, Twitter, as both a source and a medium.  

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