Jessica Bradford

Singapore-born, Sydney-raised Australian artist Jessica Bradford works across painting, ceramics, video and installation. She explores her mixed-race heritage, questioning representations of an ‘authentic’ cultural or national identity. Her work in Home and Away riffs on the artificial landscape of an eccentric Singaporean theme park, Haw Par Villa. Bradford’s small porcelain forms emulate the artifice of Chinese gardens, and of the Chinese ‘scholar rocks’, or gongshi, that members of the élite Imperial bureaucracy liked to place on their desks to remind them of the fantastical forms of the natural world.

Watch Jessica Bradford’s interview with curators Luise Guest and Jennifer Yang

Think About/Discuss:

• Bradford’s artworks depict her childhood memories. How does she describe these and what can you see within her work that helps you understand her experiences?

• Bradford speaks about Singapore having a transcultural context. What does she mean by this and how does it get explored through her work?

• Discuss Bradford’s ideas behind fantastical landscapes verses geographical stories in relation to issues on loss and cultural identity.