Rachel Jacobi

 (°1987, Manchester, United States)
“Die gerade Linie ist gottlos und unmoralisch.”(Hundertwasser)

I live by the philosophy that there is a reason for everything if you look hard enough, and I can’t accept anything as it is until I can understand why it is...which can be as enriching as it is maddening. My work is simply a reflection of the constant investigation and fascination with subjects that interest me. When I come across a concept that excites me, I become obsessed with it, researching, dissecting, picking it apart into their tiny components and playing with how they interact with each other. I become possessed with this need to understand evert facet of what it is and why it’s there; It’s history and internal logic. Whether its pouring through anatomy books to understand what the knee in a model is doing and why it looks that way or googling Hindustani music theory for weeks to be able to recognize and emulate rhythmic patterns in Kathak, only to become side-tracked by teaching myself classical Hidustani vocal techniques by memorizing various scales.

For better or worse, each project is in a constant state of flux, often morphing into something informed by the original idea but becomes something completely new. As I work, I’m often confronted by realizations of my own biases and accept must accept them as inevitable and allow it to add a new dimension to the work. I find myself constantly re-writing artist statements as a series progresses, as my understanding and intentions are constantly evolving as I create though investigation.

I prefer a hedonist methodology and only explore ideas that tickle/fascinate/unnerve/confuse/seduce me. I find myself drawn to uncomfortable grey areas, exaggeration, and brutal honesty. I tend to be most attracted to ideas surrounding people, particularly the body, often though a female lens. Which seems inevitable, I can only really tell my own story as I see it, and I’m either uninterested or incapable of detaching myself from that lens. I’ve always had a very comfortable relationship with the body, (most likely due to my mom regularly walking around the house naked as I was growing up.) I generally bored with the softcore-porn-paintings of ‘beautiful’ nudes. Maybe because they don’t feel real or human to me, not relatable. I’d rather see the flaws. It’s the imperfections; the physical and psychological idiosyncrasies that humanize them. Often exaggerating the features and “flaws” that intrigue me, imperfections, musculature skeletal structure, the parts that explain the whole. Exaggerating the physical internal logic to better understand how and why things are. Jenny Saville and Lucian Freud and personal heroes of mine.

I feel that I create because words never feel sufficient. Often struggling to verbally emote; things get stuck behind pragmatism, logic, and categorization. Emotional constipation. Art exorcizes what I’m unable to express otherwise, allowing me to work through my various obsessions to better understand them. It’s the closest I’ve come to meditation, an expressive transparency where ideas transcend speech.​


Rachel Jacobi Currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.