About

Jessica Eva is a photographic artist based in Perth, (Whadjuk Noongar Country) Western Australia. As a culturally diverse woman, her work draws on contemporary feminist theory. With Honours Degree in Fine Art at Curtin University (2014) she seeks to realise the female gaze. Her camera is a weapon (Sontag, 1977) to reject the patriarchal male gaze. Jessica Eva’s work explores her cultural heritage by subverting the traditional way women of colour are represented in the media, human rights, history and politics. Her work challenges perceptions while inverting and questioning power structures that are perceived by visual means.

Jessica Eva operates under her first and middle name. It is a feminist stance to reject the concept that a woman’s name is not her own, her last name is her father’s name and then it is her husband’s. Rather than her work be known by her family name, she has choses to taken her grandmother’s name. Her identity is her own, and hers alone to fashion.

Statement

Jessica Eva is concerned with gender representation and power in photography. Her photographic work uses the female gaze as a lens through which she views the world. The term ‘female gaze’ refers to the right of women to adopt the active and objectifying gaze that has traditionally and stereotypically been associated with males, undermining the dominant cultural alignment of masculinity with 'activity' and femininity with 'passivity'.

Her most recent body of work titled "COVID-19 Isolation" explores isolation using the female gaze as a lens to view the environment from an intimate perspective. In/her space. As with all of Jessica Eva's photographic works, she chooses the medium to communicate an intention. The media she uses range from smartphone to 35mm film or DSLR.

Drawing inspiration from contemporary feminist theory, Jessica Eva seeks to use photography as an empowering tool to represent women as multidimensional humans. She uses photography as a means for challenging perceptions of women in the media, human rights, history and politics; to disrupt the unseen structures in our world and contribute to a broader understanding of society.

CV

2019 Solo Exhibtion at PS Art Space, Fremantle
Women in Red: Portraits of The Red Brigade, Lucknow
& Self-Published Book Women in Red with Thomas Marcinkowski (Freelance Journalist and Human Rights Activist)
& Panel Discussion chaired by Curator Megan Hyde. Panelists: Panizza Allmark (Associate Dean of Arts & Humanities, at Edith Cowan University. Olivia Colja Artist and Curator and Jessica Eva.

2019 Fringe Perth, Women of Valour

2018 Collective Exhibition and Silent Auction at The Perth Centre for Photography

2018 Australian Human Rights Commission Photographic Retrospective Exhibition

2018 International Singapore Photography Festival, Photobook acquired for DECK Archive

2017 Collective Exhibition and Silent Auction at The Perth Centre for Photography

2016 Collective Exhibition and Silent Auction at The Perth Centre for Photography

2015 Curated and Exhibited at Diwali Art Festival, Indian Society of WA

2015 Aquinas College Photography Competition Judge

2015 Dis/Connection Exhibition, The Basement Gallery

2014 Curtin University Graduate Exhibition (Honours)

2013 St Stephen’s School, Carramar Photography Competition Judge

2012 Uncover at the Perth Centre for Photography