“Nestled within Goolugatup Heathcote, Dwelling is a slight departure from Jessee’s usual approach, which often sees his worlds materialise fleetingly in in-between, disused or abandoned spaces. Like with his other projects Commonwealth of New Bayswater or Prestige Bricks, experiencing a world constructed by Jessee is akin to the sensation felt when a threshold is crossed or when the simple turning of a corner reveals another reality; drawn from the very stuff in which our world is made of – systems, materials, and ideologies. Dwelling functions the same way. Comprising core aspects of a home such as a kitchen and living area, each component is constructed from degraded and wasted materials.”
— An excerpt from if you lived in your heart by Elizabeth Smith, a commissioned essay for Dwelling.
Dwelling by Jessee Lee Johns marks the 17th iteration of the TILT program.
I was born in 1980 in Boorloo/Perth, and more or less hang about and make work there.
At some stage I muddled my way through a bachelor’s degree in fine art at Curtin University, but didn’t really seem to understand what was going on. This led to a fairly lengthy sabbatical from the practice of fine art. I am the proprietor of Prestige Bricks, a store that makes feature bricks, repairs bricks that have seen better days and somehow addresses the housing crisis. I recently completed a brick repair that may be the best thing I have ever done.
At some stage it struck me as a good idea to make some paintings, but not knowing where to show them, I decided to make a gallery in a popular fly dumping spot in Perth’s outer suburbs. After putting on a couple of shows there, someone moved in, and it was subsequently demolished. The gallery, CIOMA, went on to be rebuilt in a variety of contexts, most notably in an alternate future in the year 2020, from which I summoned it and myself back to 2018 in order to prevent WA’s secession and collapse.
In 2017 I established a small nation called the Commonwealth Of New Bayswater, of which I and a friend are the only citizens. And just in case you, the reader of this bio, feel as though you have been overlooked and your citizenship should be made official, it is probably the case that the paperwork is currently making its way through the bureaucracy and will be granted in due course. The Commonwealth appears from time to time, establishing its borders when conditions are favourable, fading as they turn. Kind of like an algal bloom, but instead of phosphates from agricultural runoff, it’s mining money in one way or another.
— Jessee Lee Johns
