Julia Bennett

b. 1995 California, USA

Julia Bennett is an American artist living and working in London. Bennett has completed a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Photography/New Media in 2017. Her work has been exhibited internationally. Her recent exhibitions include; Vanguards, a group show currently on view with Unit London (London), a group exhibition with Wilder Gallery (London), Bucolia, Blue Shop Cottage (London), and Convergence and Collapse, a duo show at The Grove Collective (London). 

Ghosts among the living; held together by invisible strings, connected to their original spaces, they hold space still. What was leaves remnants–from the deep layers of time cradled by soil to the grey matter of our amygdala, they hold imprints of trauma. Without understanding deeper histories, we cannot begin to answer the questions of who we are, what was, or how we will carry on.

My practice serves as a reminder of our impossible present; a time of rupture and of ghosts. Within this, I explore desecration, collective mourning, and ultimately, the paradox of ongoingness and 'futurelessness'. Through this navigation, painting has become a way to see, to grieve, and to contemplate healing. 

In recent pursuits in mycofabrication, ongoingness has become a tangible matter. The politics of mycelium offers a way to understand the landscape that has been neglected, a way to revive the relationships of a bastardised ecosystem. This work has become a reflection of our entangling with the ever-colonised and over-consumed Earth: a mirror of the horrors within and the threshold to a world after.