Jon Kipps
Jon Kipps is a visual artist based at theblokhouse in Southend-on-Sea. He graduated with Distinction from the MFA Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2020. Working primarily in sculpture, he builds his forms from discarded and everyday materials — wood offcuts, cardboard, MDF, plasterboard — which he sprays, dyes and repurposes, and he has grown mycelium into specific shapes to encapsulate components. Incorporating stickers, found objects, reflectors, custom paint finishes and bespoke parts, his work draws on symbols, architectural design, car modifications, warning markers and hostile design to explore how objects are used to assert or diffuse power, manipulate behaviour and signal social hierarchies. Recent works take their titles from niche punk and metal bands.
Artist Statement
My work stems from a curiosity in the way people choose to model and customise their environments and surrounding commodities, as well as how we are encouraged to interpret them.
My idea of making sculpture is that it is possible to charge materials with a low-fi power. When you invest enough energy into making an object it can acquire a special sort of resonance.