Jody Mulvey (she/her) is an artist and facilitator based in Scotland, whose work revolves around the notion that art can ultimately be a playful enquiry that oozes joy.
The hierarchical structuring of institutional spaces within the arts and the rituals visitors are required to enact within them, provide the stimulus for her artistic practice. She explores this by utilising colour, shape and materiality as a medium to subvert the seriousness of institutional spaces and playfully reconstruct them through her interventions. Drawing, collage and the making of maquettes provide the preliminary means of envisaging potential encounters between visitors, her artwork and the environment in which they are situated. Drawing, collage and the making of maquettes provide the preliminary means of envisaging potential encounters between visitors, her artwork and the environment in which they are situated. She views these modes of exploration as an artistic playground where she is able to mishmash and meld components together to construct a composition. Drawing is like writing to her due to the fluid and impulsive nature of the mark-making. It is like her subconscious rambling and scrolling of the mind and how she makes sense of spatial sensations and the relationship between forms in two-dimensional surfaces; preliminary processes of two-dimensional enquiry are a vital prelude to collaging within the three-dimensional realm.
As founder of @sadgrads2020, she has built a community platform for UK art school graduates who had their degree shows cancelled due to COVID-19. The platform aims to instigate a sense of solidarity amongst UK art schools, to create a network for people that is out with their current art school, provide a platform for people to promote their work, create opportunities for emerging artists and to, importantly, inspire people to be proud of what they’ve achieved in their duration of time at art school. She believes that these networks of care and support are vital within society. She has published two volumes of a SADGRADS2020 zine in collaboration with Ruben Buffery that includes the work of 102 contributors from across the UK. The platform has also been featured on Dazed (by The White Pube), The Elephant Mag and 10Magazine.
