Jake Starr

Jake Starr (b. 1998) is a multi-disciplinary artist residing in Warrang (Sydney, Australia).

Their practice occupies the realms of photography, performance, writing and digital rendering. 

Starr’s work acts as a rumination on accidental significance, the artifice of sentiment and truth in personal mythologies. Much of their practice involves the reappraisal of overlooked data, histories and phenomena in order to refute the assigned worth of auxiliary information. Employing a diverse lineage of image making processes, Starr extrapolates errors of technological imperfection, imbuing them with a sympathetic reverence. They are fascinated by the rhizomatic interplay of societal structures, institutions and geographies. Allergic to dust but oh-so drawn to it.

#9 | Do Sheep Dream as a Herd, 2021, screenprinting ink, butchers paper, approx. 30 x 50 cm, $75.

Do Sheep Dream as a Herd, 2021 was developed by accident in the process of screenprinting another work, Geometry for a Selfish Herd. After finishing a run of prints for the aforementioned work, the ghost image of sheep bounding through a paddock sat wetly atop the registration acetate. I applied a sheet of butchers paper to the acetate in order to soak up excess ink. The ink bound to the butchers paper and through a thoughtless and gentle turn of the paper, the form of the herd was atomised. Upon lifting the butchers paper, I was met with an image of stars or dust or the twisting forms of light from behind closed eyes. I thought of the self; if it were atomised could we brush aside the excess and read dreams. Or atomised as a group and reconstituted as one; Would we dream as a herd?