ARTIST STATEMENT
Mine is a nomadic background, and my roots are spread throughout communities across the U.S. and overseas. I have had first-hand exposure to human suffering worldwide.
The stories my artworks tell are strongly influenced by my perceptions of the vast diversity of a multicultural world and the belief that civilization is the central cause for deterioration of the human condition.
I strive to set up vivid contrasts between industrialized societies and third-world homelands through the careful selection of images as a collage artist and a poet. The social intersection of the two worlds is often fascinating, and may be aesthetically compelling, yet it can be astonishingly cruel and terrifying in its implications.
Even in a rich country like America, there is frequently insufficient access to basic needs and a place of safety, since there is widespread institutional failure and a studied neglect of the poor and hopeless. Moreover, at all class levels, we are haunted by our longing for redemption and genuine intimacy, and by our constant fear of a violent death.
In my vision of the world, glimpses of suffering, devastation, hypocrisy and alienation abound, but so does awesome beauty and wondrous complexity. There is much that is absurd and ironic in all of this.
The spectacle I am visited by is intensified by revelations of the obsessive destructiveness of man and the callous disregard for the suffering of the vanquished, as occurs in war.
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Today
by Jake ResslerThe flowers here are ashen,Black stalks with withered rootsremoved from this barren earth.This is eternityand this is my today.Shotgun blasts greet the dawnAnd color fades from sleepy bullet holes.Silence shatters the silenceThat makes up my today.Though the trampled flowers never die,Five-thousand feet are marching strongShredding the beauty underfootAnd scorching what remains.Civil games are tiringAnd rituals have broken down.Reality is elusive hereAnd though I’m living in a dream,I’ve never been asleep.This is my todayAnd the sun gives no more light.(2005) -
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Tonight
by Jake ResslerTonightSomething flees with the wind.TonightThe blood flow will begin.TonightLike a river we’ll surge.TonightOur powers here will merge.TonightNo one is the master.TonightPure hearts will beat faster.TonightThe cities we will pillageTonightWe’ll burn each town and village.TonightLives are in our hands.TonightWe’ll issue our demandsTonightThe great lion devours.TonightAll things here will be ours.(2005)
ARTIST PROFILE