Jaclyn Wright (born Peoria, IL; lives Salt Lake City, UT) holds a BA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. Wright has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues, including Sabine Street Studios, Houston, TX; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, both Salt Lake City, UT; SF Camerawork and SFO Museum, both San Francisco, CA; as well as OCT-LOFT, Shenzhen, China. Her work is held in the collections at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, both Chicago, IL. She is Assistant Professor of Photography & Digital Imaging at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Statement from the Artist:
Marked combines traditional photographic techniques with contemporary digital processes, performance and sculpture. The title refers to a prominent birthmark on my neck, which has drawn verbal and physical abuse from strangers. Reproductions of the birthmark’s shape and color appear throughout the work. In Marked, I consider ways we are marked from birth. Birthmarks are like political boundaries on a map, expressing the desire to include and exclude, to mark belonging through exclusion and differentiation. The work explores the parallels between patriarchal attempts to subjugate and exploit the land and the body. This is visualized through the demarcation of the birthmark to represent what is through what isn’t.