Jessica Cadkin: PLUME
July 29th, 2022 – September 3rd, 2022
Birds have stirred the imagination of artists, scientists, engineers, and inventors for thousands of years. Their ability to fly has connected and inspired people in both real and abstract ways. Birds also have a unique feature specific to them: feathers. Feathers have evolved to include the full spectrum of visible color and possess a variety of purposes: even though feathers are what allow birds to fly, they also protect, conceal, and are ornamental.
Jessica Cadkin’s installation, “Plume,” is made up of over seventy abstracted feather shapes, layered in small groupings and mounted on clear rods. Constructed from ironed and fused plastic bags, the ‘feathers’ flutter and cast bird-shaped shadows. The choice of colors pulled from the plastic bags represent just a mere fraction of the colors found in nature. The stitching acts as a visual counterbalance, an oblique reference to the manufactured conditions the natural world must now cope with.
In addition to her installation, Cadkin is also showing four small bird collages.
Available Work
Jessica Cadkin
Jessica Cadkin was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in Napa, California. She received a BA in Sculpture and Painting from San Francisco State University and currently works out of her studio in Oakland, CA. Her work has appeared in group shows internationally and throughout Northern California including Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, di Rosa Preserve, Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature, Bedford Gallery, Root Division, and the Berkeley Art Center.