Jessica Cadkin: a small body
February 16 – March 23, 2024
Using 35-millimeter slides from the 1950s through the 1970s, Jessica Cadkin layers them to create unexpected landscapes for her series ‘a small body.’ The slides are from the estate sale of a deceased 100-year-old dentist who took vacation photos at locations including South America, Disneyland, and Hawaii. Selecting the slides was an intimate and voyeuristic experience: viewing a stranger’s life shared with his family, many of whom are presumably dead, seen through the lens of his camera at some of their seemingly happiest and most memorable moments.
The layered slides are lit from behind in 8” x 8” wooden boxes, painted to replicate the cardboard mounting that encased a majority of the vintage slides. Viewers are invited to look closely.
Available Work
Jessica Cadkin
Jessica Cadkin is an Oakland-based artist, born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in Napa, California. She received a BA in Sculpture and Painting from San Francisco State University. Her work has appeared in group shows internationally and throughout California including the de Young Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, di Rosa Preserve, Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature, Bedford Gallery, Tryst Alternative Art Fair (Los Angeles), Root Division, and the Berkeley Art Center.
Cadkin has completed artist residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale, and her work has been featured in numerous publications including KQED Arts, the Daily Californian, Oakland Art Murmur, and Artweek.