Diane Christiansen & Jessie Mott Artist Talk

Hawthorn Contemporary is pleased to announce the exhibition opening of Scissors is Our Love Language, featuring both collaborative and solo work by Chicago-based artists Diane Christiansen and Jessie Mott.

The works in the exhibition were created throughout 2022-2023 in Christiansen’s studio. Working side by side most weeks, the artists accessed each other’s studio remnants—unfinished drawings, paintings that never quite came together, collage scraps— to create new works. Often, Christiansen and Mott would trade the pieces back and forth, trusting each other’s decisions to alter, transform, and sometimes eviscerate the original form. The resulting collages capture a spirit of playfulness alongside the tension of letting go.

Their hybrid visual language often references a body in an abstracted space, creating small worlds wherein elements of humor and melancholy mingle. The dominant medium in both Christiansen and Mott’s practice is water-based media on paper and each has a history of working in animation, some of which will be screened in this exhibition. The artists are also practicing social workers, which they believe provides an added dimension to the heart and joy of their collaborative practice.