Jennifer Hooper – Anima

07/11/24 till 20/11/24

“ANIMA meaning soul or life in Latin relates to Animism – a metaphysical belief system, focused on the concept of the immaterial soul. All creatures are deemed to possess a distinct spiritual essence and sentience does not just exist in humans.

According to the psychologist Carl Jung, the animal is sublime and represents the divine side of the human psyche. He believed that animals live in close contact with a secret order in nature, and in close contact with the absolute knowledge of the unconscious.

The animals in Hooper’s paintings have an emotional and psychological presence; we are confronted with their lack of agency but also with ourselves, and a sense of loss.
There is a unity and equality between the humans and the animals; the nude figures are suggestive of our animalistic precepts and the animal gaze is knowing and sentient.

The paintings can be described as poetic realism where figuration has an elusive, dreamlike quality. Through multiple, delicate applications of paint and marks the tenuity between beauty and melancholy is described. Something intangible.”

Private view: Thursday 7th November, from 6pm