Jessica Swank
Jessica Swank: Muscle Memory
Opening Reception: Friday, August 1, 2025, 5-8pm
Muscle Memory is a meditation on the significance of labor and the body in a time increasingly shaped by automation and post-biological ideals. This series represents an extension of my own body detached from myself, exploring how the body may become detached from consciousness in the digital age.. Through repetitive processes and actions, I think of my labor in creating this work as itself an act of resistance against the idea that human beings can be reduced to machines. While the work is not directly performative, I consider the labor embedded in the making of these works as a quiet performance.
"Muscle Memory" asks what it means to be human in a time when convenience, artificial intelligence, and tech-driven systems are rapidly reshaping how we live and think. Through a hands-on, process-based approach rooted in repetition, movement, and materiality, I reflect on the growing disconnect between the body and the mind—and what we risk losing when we value efficiency over human complexity.
Exhibition dates: August 1-29, 2025
Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm
This program is supported by a grant from the Athena Foundation.