NeverthelesS, She Persisted
Nevertheless, She Persisted
Mounted hand embroidery
2022
Jess de Wahls
Price on inquiry: hi@jessdewahls.com
Royal Academy Summer Show 2022
Having undesirably garnered a small but determined anti fan-club who over the previous two years tried everything to boycott any and every work opportunity of mine, I became very cautious about what I would share in public. Thankfully, a steady stream of private commissions helped my work to grow and go from strength-to-strength since I went public with my views.
I hadn’t been careful enough, though. My anti-fan-club found out that I had been supplying the Royal Academy of Arts with my floral patches and acted swiftly to try and get my work removed.
After a very brief email exchange with the RA, informing me that they had received eight public complaints against me and therefore had to investigate, without warning, I was very publicly dropped by them via their 500k strong instagram account and labelled as a bigot.
What followed was a crazy rollercoaster ride for both me and them, as the whole thing became very public very quickly, attracting the attention of the national press and cultural commentators worldwide. I had become an emblem of the culture wars. After a week long stand-off, an enormous amount of press coverage and a huge public outcry, the Chief of the RA personally apologised to me and my patches were reinstated in the Academy.
This very noisy and very public affair resulted in my career being somewhat supercharged and has afforded me previously unimagined opportunities to meet and collaborate with like-minded individuals and organisations.
As a result of this complete failure to uphold the principle of freedom of expression in the arts by one of its oldest institutions, Royal Academician David Mach invited me to take part in the RA Summer Exhibition in 2022.
The piece I created for the exhibition is titled ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’.
It explores that year’s theme of ‘climate’, depicting the earth during its 6th mass extinction, with scattered bodies being devoured by mycelium, while a geodesic dome built by supersized bees protects nature and expels everything hazardous from it’s shores.
‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’
Mounted hand embroidery
2022
Jess de Wahls
Price on inquiry: hi@jessdewahls.com