Pristinely painted, colorful and chaotic, Jessica Eastburn's current work plays on ideas of (not that real) connectedness, (all things equivalent, but really, are they?) value judgements and distraction. A flattened picture plane, enmeshed imagery and intense complexity offer enticing entertainment for our vacuous selves while also implying that some deeper meaning will emerge, eventually, if we just stay with it a little longer.

Although extremely attractive, relentlessly cheerful even, a theme of "flirting with disaster" underpins the imagery, alerting us to Eastburn's concerns and fascinations. As she says,

The idea that this monster (technology) has broken from its shackles and is now in control is present in the way that incongruous elements comingle and compete for our attention, in the way disturbing imagery can sneak its way next to the most benign thing, and in the way it is impossible to make heads or tails of the mass of information in order to discern if anything in these works is relevant, important, or worthwhile to look at. We can only sit back and watch (and take pics to post to social media to show that we were there) as the society that we inherited collapses. Maybe when the powers that be exploit us too much we will finally look up from our screens and take notice that our land, our democracy and our values have all been trashed before our very eyes…well maybe not before our very eyes--because we were too busy looking at our devices.

(Jessica Eastburn)