Jessica Ashman, ’You Are The Underworld’

In response to Jessica Ashman's moving image commission 'Utopia Portals', artists Beverley Bennett, Khaleb Brooks and Richard Phoenix have collaborated with Ashman to create a soundscape that reacts to the themes, emotions and energy presented in the work. The artists worked in a 'call and response' way, recording elements of music and poetry, sending them to each other and responding accordingly. This compliments the method that Ashman used to make 'Utopia Portals', which was created from an amalgamation of field recordings, mobile phone footage and animation filmed during her time visiting her ancestral motherland of Jamaica for the first time. 

Credits:

Production: Jessica Ashman and Richard Phoenix
Guitar, vocals and sound design: Jessica Ashman
Spoken Word: Beverley Bennett and Khaleb Brooks
Bass and drums: Richard Phoenix
Steel Pan: Beverley Bennett

Jessica Ashman is a London based artist working in animation moving image, music, performance and installation. Her work focusses on creating experimental narratives that explore gender, identity and race. Her work draws on the wider stories of the Black British diaspora communities she was raised in, especially the histories and oral testimonies that have been lost or hidden in these communities. Science-fiction narratives and the meta-physical theories these narratives present are also influences on Jessica’s practice, especially when it comes to world-building within her moving image work.