Never the Same Again
by Jocelyn Mathewes
Never the Same Again #01, 2022. IV tubing, wire, fabric, cotton, medical wrap Slinky®.
My work documents the psychology and embodied experience of the unrepeatable moment.
Never the Same Again is a series of sculptures made from broken and discarded Slinky® toys. The bent Slinky® is a metaphor for an injured body — once you bend or distort a Slinky®, it never moves quite the same way it used to. In the case of the Slinky®, once it stops functioning properly, it is often discarded or neglected.
A human body, by contrast, once broken or sick, must continue on with its limited or new way of functioning. A body broken, injured, sick (or different in its particular way) may function the way it is unexpected, yet it retains its beauty, joy, meaning. It deserves full expression and presence.
In the same way the bent Slinky® becomes beautiful and fascinating in these sculptures, retaining the original essence of its movement. In each sculpture the broken Slinky® is placed on a podium of reverence, and interwoven with medical detritus in order to become a complete metaphor for the broken body. Its past — full of joyful movement — continues on in a new form.
Never the Same Again #0, 2022. IV tubing, wire, fabric, cotton, medical wrap Slinky®.
Jocelyn Mathewes is a mixed-media interdisciplinary artist, living with her family in rural Appalachia in East Tennessee, USA. She earned her B.A. in Studio Art and English Literature from Messiah College. Her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and community spaces all over the United States. She has participated in residencies with the Artist Residency in Motherhood (ARiM), Makers Circle, and Stay Home Gallery. In 2020, she founded EAT/ART space, an alternative pop-up gallery, where she curates exhibits. She also organizes artist meet-ups in the southern highlands to foster regional growth, collaboration, and innovation.
