Jamie Isenstein

Isenstein explores the interplay of performance and sculpture, contesting the status of sculpture as an inanimate object. By inhabiting the artworks with her own body, Isenstein combines sculptural practice and ‘endurance performance art’ with elements of absurdist humour.

In many of her objects and theatrical installations, the artist is contained within the object itself, her body never fully revealed. Even when Isenstein is not performing the piece, a temporary sign stating ‘will return’ or ‘gone fishing’ is displayed to ensure that the artwork continues. Drawing inspiration from Surrealism, in particular the paintings of René Magritte and the writings of Georges Bataille, Isenstein’s work explores the idea of the uncanny, and notions of revelation and concealment, presence and absence.

For Touched, Isenstein presented a new work that involved the artist’s presence over the entire duration of the exhibition. In the centre of the gallery sat a large cluster of stuff: furniture such as tables, a chair and a fireplace, and things from everyday life – among other decorative objects, a bronze sculpture and a pile of books – haphazardly pushed to the centre of the room. The setting alluded to the stacked interior of what might have been a drawing room in Second Empire style, or the stage props of a theatre set for the Sartre play No Exit.

As if by a miracle the objects were on fire, with little flames emerging from them, yet they did not burn. As almost self-sufficient monuments that commemorate their own existence, they called attention to their permanence and invoked a notion of eternity. From the corner of the gallery, witnessing the mysterious gathering of objects on fire, is what at first appeared to be a standard-issue fire hose… Beware! In Jamie Isenstein’s work nothing was as it seems.

Jamie Isenstein

Empire of Fire, 2010
Mixed media
Commissioned by and exhibited at Tate Liverpool