Jenny Keane (b. Co. Clare, Ireland, 1984) is a visual artist based in Belfast. She studied for her degree at the Limerick School of Art and Design, and obtained her MFA from the University of Ulster, where she is currently completing a PhD. Keane’s practice is focused on the word ‘horrific’. Visually, her work deals with society’s fascination with horror films – rather than being a fan, Keane’s interest in horror stems from the negative representation of the monstrous female body, and the subversion of these depictions.
Through video installation and performative drawings, her work explores the self-portrait in an attempt to investigate the dichotomy between fear and desire, its relationship to language and connection to the (female) body. The work focuses on concepts of abjection and liminality alongside the idea of compulsive repetition, a pause or loop that subverts the constructions of narrative.
In The Lick Drawings series, each of the drawings is a pause. Being stills captured from horror movies, every image evokes the monstrosity within the film. Yet, rather than allowing the film to complete itself, the drawing of the image halts the story so it cannot restore any kind of ‘order’ through filmic narrative. Instead, what is left is the abject quality of the scene, which is further reiterated by the saliva and blood on the image. The licking duplicates the image’s monstrous quality, or rather converts it from the metaphorical abject into the literal.