Jamie Zimchek
Whose Legacy is it?
Textiles, bronze, wood, artificial sinew, polaroids
Available for Loan

Whose Legacy is it? is a semi-autobiographical work that serves broadly as a consideration of epigenetics and the ancestral reverberations that, through a wildly improbably roll of genetic dice, led to this moment. More specifically, the work considers the weight of this historical narrative, acknowledging the mix of microscopic deoxyribonucleic acid strands, both good and unfortunate, that lead to any one individual’s existence. No amount of shaking can dislodge either from the family tree. To what extent does this knowledge impact one’s perception of self? To what extent should it?

This project was done in partial collaboration with my mother, who thoroughly researched her matrilineal line; the depicted individuals represent those ancestors. For my mother, who was raised in an abusive home, these characters, some illustrious, others much less so, provided some sort of existential framework that she’d been missing. She feels if she’d had this information earlier, she would have lived life differently – held her head up higher. On the other hand, I envisioned myself as recently American in lineage, absolved of any responsibility for the legacy of Manifest Destiny. Discovering distant relations as far back as the Mayflower has caused me to rethink my own relationship to the past and reshaped my context for interpreting self in the present. What is my responsibility with this discovery? Acknowledging that there’s no changing the past, where does that leave us moving forward?

Disclaimer: these ancestral connections are derived from information collected in popular ancestry software by independent users and may or may not be accurate.

Artist Bio

Jamie Zimchek is a multi-disciplinary artist heavily influenced by her fundamentalist youth and world wandering. Years spent internationally as a freelance writer, photographer, and academic lecturing on topics such as U.S. Foreign Policy and Middle Eastern Conspiracy have further shaped her focus.  Much of Zimchek’s recent work has revolved around an exploration of the storylines used by controlling power systems as a means of manipulation. Often absurd, these false narratives and imagined truths enforce the separation between us and Other and are sometimes so deeply entrenched that they’ve been all but forgotten. Underlying her studio practice is a visual consideration of these storylines as they’re used to maintain control across cultures and contexts in intimate, domestic settings but also in more public, political ones.

Recently, Zimchek exhibited at Juniper Sculpture Park in New York, was featured for the Cultural Art Alliance Billboard Project, and has shown work as part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography, the Seaside Prize, and other assorted shows in the U.S. and U.K. Zimchek has an MA in Mediterranean Studies from King’s College London and an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Zimchek is currently based in Northwest Florida and an instructor in the art department at Gulf Coast State College.