Jessica Raschke is a writer, artist, and psychotherapist-in-training (with the Metavision Institute). Her work typically considers soul-based and existential questions about meaning and mortality.
Jessica’s most recent poetry collection, Lightning Shades (2021) is available through Ginninderra Press. Her installation, Liminal Leaves, was exhibited at Retford Park in 2022, as part of the Artists of the Round Yard’s x-pollination exhibition.
In 2020, she focused on vinyl text-based installations at Mental (Scruples and Humanity Always) and The CORRIDOR Project (Scruples). Other works have included participatory text-based installations that provided audiences with meaningful opportunities for personal reflection. Leaving Love (2018-2019) was part of The Art of Giving at Retford Park in Bowral, Sculptures for Clyde (2019), and Sculptures at Killalea (2019). Wisdom Weaving was featured at the Hillview Sculpture Biennial and Sculptures at Killalea in 2018. It asked audiences to contribute the wisest words they’ve ever heard, read or said, to glean and gather collective wisdom.
Over the years, she has also installed Soul Secrets, as part of Micro Galleries in Nowra (2015), Ten Thousand Paces in Bowral (2016), and Hapenny Lane in Katoomba (2017), and the Before I Die wall in Mittagong, Bowral, and Moss Vale (2016), with artists Monica Donoso and Martin Bretherick.
Other works have been exhibited at VAC in Bendigo (Mystified – projected poetry), Kings ARI (Suicide Silence – projected based monologue), 69 Smith Street Gallery (Shallow Impulse – vinyl text), Centre for Contemporary Photography (Humanity Always – photograph) and fauxPho (What We’re Going Through lightbox installations).
In 2019, Jessica and Martin created a new Before I Die wall as part of From the Brink at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre. She also collaborated with US artist Mim Golub on The Better Future Mail Project as part of the Micro Galleries International Artists Collective.
Jessica is painfully multidimensional (at least to herself and sometimes to others) and defies convenient categorisation. Don’t ask her to explain herself. Having said that, she is still very friendly. Her old website, The Soul Spectrum, might help explain a few things. You can learn more about her here and get in touch with her here.