Rachel Jackson - Other: Myopia

From the artist:

The concept of vision has always felt inherently and urgently compelling to me, not only in a cerebral, artistic sense, but as someone with a degenerative retinal disease that in recent years has physically changed the way I see. As someone who also experiences neurodivergence that significantly alters my perception, I constantly find myself both passively musing on and harshly confronting the many meanings of vision in my work and my life.

When I started incorporating the sentient pantomime horse character into my work, the costume’s plastic eyes ('eye discs' as they're known in the lore) became a vehicle for exploring all of these facets. I imagined the eye discs granted the horse costume a source of extra sensory wisdom; a vision that didn’t feel as loaded or precarious as my own. Sometimes the eye discs are the horse’s actual eyes, but they also appear as a symbol or pattern throughout many of my pieces. For each page of this book, Fondue Palace selected a single eye disc from a total of 243 artworks to create this dizzying array of nebulous details, some of which are concise and clear, while others refuse to be blinked into focus.

At a recent appointment with my retina specialist, I was handed paperwork that listed my conditions and felt uncomfortable seeing “Other: Myopia” written on the document. I had forgotten that “myopic” is not just a critical art word, but that it clinically describes nearsightedness. I decided to use that phrase for the title, not just because it speaks to eyes and altered vision, but also as a way to poke fun at the self obsession I fear lies just under the surface in all of my work.

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