Soundsystem (Culture and Urbanisation) Print

Irish / British, b. 1978, London. Based in London. Jaykoe’s work explores globalisation through the accelerated impact on city space. Operating at the intersection of urbanisation, postcolonialism and interculturalism, urban-spatial movements are sampled and traced within densely populated and expanding cities. Areas of research are mapped out across the metropolis, shifting contours that fluctuate over the gridlines of the city like the movements of Parkour, probing the structures of the centres we build up, the forms they take and questioning what they reveal about us. Drawing is the foundation of the work, overlaid with an approach to each project that actively combines and assimilates new materials and techniques in experimental forms. This interdisciplinary approach ranges through installation, neon, sculpture, video, performance, printmaking and other works on paper. The legacy of colonialism and imperialism shaped the multicultural city of London where the artist was born. Being of Irish heritage influenced a critical position on the actions and the authority of the state. Enquiries into movements of cultural resistance are layered with a background as a sound-system DJ. This resonates throughout the work, formally with the application of the techniques used in audio sampling to visual material, conceptually with pirate radio as a metaphor for the notion of networked performances across global cities, all with the potential to construct spaces of positive interaction between different groups and cultures. BIOGRAPHY Jaykoe was born in London in 1978 and lives and works in London and Rome. He graduated from The Cass MA Fine Art programme in 2012, with Distinction. He has exhibited in several group exhibitions including 'Invisible City Symphonies', Silwex Space, London and ‘VIDEOKILLS', Homebase, Berlin (2010); 'Online Show One', Fermynwoods Contemporary Art and 'Opening Night at The Castro', San Francisco (2011); 'Feeling the Pressure', Rhyl Museum, Wales and 'KISS THE FUTURE', Schwartz Gallery, London (2012); 'Screen City', Rogaland Kunstsenter, Stavanger, Norway and 'Nord Art', Kunstwerk Carlshutte, Germany (2013); ‘Artists Film’ British Film Institute, London and Singapore Art Fair (2014); ‘hundreds and thousands’, Lubimirov / Angus-Hughes Gallery, London and 'Battersea Art Station’, Battersea Arts Centre, London (2015); ‘ArtRooms', Melia White House, London and ‘Design and Architecture’, Studio 73, London (2016).