This is not a statement.

I'm just telling you what I've been thinking about. I've been thinking a lot about late capitalism. It may or may not be evident in the work. I'm not pointing to it or calling it out, but cause and effect, labor and maintenance, are on my mind. It's why I first picked up a video camera and why I placed a moratorium on painting, twice now. It's why I have an observational practice with an emphasis on process and why much of my work takes place in my kitchen or backyard. It’s why I returned to lens-based work and resist being categorized by one particular style.

Writing a statement is labor. I spent (see what I did there?) time crafting this statement. I was trying to explain why I moved from the American South (the soil of my upbringing) to California (Los Angeles, then Joshua Tree) and why I keep coming back South, and how these geographies affect my practice when the phrase "late capitalism" slipped out. I was trying to talk about a collective malaise, about feeling lost, about needing refuge. I was trying to talk about home.

I document day-to-day life as a catalyst for ongoing critical investigation. I work intuitively though my visual language is informed by research and prompted by curiosity and temporal moments in the everyday. My videos often address issues of self-representation, combining performance with wry humor, philosophical inquiry, and feminist overtones. Ordinary moments hold my attention, as do existential situations of the absurd and ham-fisted beauty. My practice is one of folding my art and life into one another. I work across painting, photography, video, and writing.

Mary Addison Hackett

Nashville, Tennessee

2023