Jess Riva Cooper / Viral Series

 

Toronto-based Jess Riva Cooper is a mega talented sculptor who loves to incorporate color and illustration into her pieces. Flora entangle themselves around busts in her Viral Series, II, and III, taking over the human body in an almost parasitic way.

I study the foundation myths of the Dybbuk in Yiddish folklore and reinterpret these traditional stories through a female lens. I also investigate fallen economic and environmental climates in cities where houses have become feral, disappearing behind ivy, trees and Kudzu vines that were planted generations ago. I see a direct parallel between my interest in insidious plant life and a malevolent Dybbuk spirit, which takes over the human body.

 

Posted In create, sculpture