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My practice-led research is as a painter who explores urban alienation in contemporary transcultural contexts, based on my journeys in my immediate urban environments. My imagery depicts cultural diversity of people by including crowds, iconic buildings and sculptures alongside self-portraits and room interiors. I have an interest in cross- cultural influences of People of Colour communities in cities and my identity as a South Asian British artist.

Other Daughter
Other Daughter, Jasmir Creed, 2021, oil on canvas 130 x 120 cm

I use vivid colours in my expressionistic figurative paintings, inspired by works of historical and contemporary painters e.g. Edward Hopper, Naiza Khan and Lubaina Himid. Working compositionally, the paintings contrast psychological presences of people from varied cultural backgrounds and include self-portraits in relationship with environments that sometimes reference British history (e.g. Trafalgar Square, London). The way I conceive my imagery and put together painterly compositions references how I see and perceive physically and neurologically (i.e. how I move around). This is filtered through my experiences so that what I observe becomes a perception. I use oil paint to construct space using colour in the picture plane which are then occupied by forms such as figures. Painting reveals unexpected images of urban scenes with the painting process creating the unpredictable. In many cases one can identify the work of artists immediately as they have their own ‘handwriting’, and I believe my paintings show a distinctive personal vision.

My production of paintings is related to theoretical and contextual material, presenting an original contribution to knowledge and existing work in the field. I draw upon theories of alienation spearheaded by Karl Marx, and theories of the Other put forward by Georg Hegel and Jean Paul Sartre. I draw this together with my own lived experience so that the terms ‘alienation’, ‘the other’ and ‘transcultural hybridity’ are presented more as unique personal perspectives. 

As well as painting, I work through curating and public programming as a research method. Presenting my research to audiences provides dialogues developing my ideas, including collaborative discussion with artists, curators, and writers, as when my paintings have been in exhibitions (e.g. a solo exhibition Utopolis solo exhibition at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, Warrington) and talks I have delivered (e.g.at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre, UCL on Racism and Racialization June 2021). 

Website: https://jcreed1.wixsite.com/website

Supervisors

Primary supervisor: Phoebe Unwin
Secondary supervisors: Dr Natasha Eaton, Neil Jeffries

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