ROY presents: Rachel Linnemann & Josie Love Roebuck
Resilience
Through my artwork, I’m sharing stories of trauma that influence my identity and personal relationships; focusing on the strength needed to reclaim ones self through recovery. I am making work that reflects my personal experiences with rape, gaslighting, divorce, and social distancing. All of these experiences have influenced and questioned my identity and femininity. I am telling the story of my recovery, focusing on the strength needed to reclaim one’s self. This work is about dealing with trauma in relation to today’s society, while navigating personal relationships, and letting go of past pain.
Themes of mental health, resilience, and rape are conveyed through painting and sculpting. The two mediums are meant to be harmonious. The paintings express the side effects of trauma, while the sculptures indicate the weight of sharing that story. My sculptures create a sense of tension through simplified forms, allowing the viewer to confuse a flower for brass knuckles. This imagery conjures ideas of a delicate form contrasting with one meant to defend or attack, communicating the dual identity of one living with memories of trauma. At times, this may be the feeling of strength as well as weakness. These works hold a broader meaning of vulnerability and resilience. The bold colors used throughout the work are used as a way to convey that I will not be silenced. I am growing to accept the past and the ripple effects one event can have on an individual without destroying oneself.
ROY asks
What is your name and preferred pronouns:
Rachel Linnemann, She/Her
How has art (whether it be your own or art in general changed you?
It has broadened my sense of empathy and allowed me to communicate with people beyond my personal network.
How did you start your artistic practice?
Creativity was always encouraged growing up. I was always working on some type of craft project. I come from a family of creatives that never claimed the title of artist, so it took me until my sophomore year of undergrad to feel comfortable fully focusing on art.
When a first-time viewer sees your work, what is the first word that your hope they think when looking at your work?
Strength
Josie Love Roebuck’s intricate portraits explore the aftermath of trauma: haunted feelings of forced vulnerability, shame, guilt, unwanted touch, disgust, pain, loss of hope, and the constant fear of another attack. Her depictions of the female nude re-examine the historic presentation of the female body as an object to be taken or consumed, without agency. By shifting the lens from the male gaze to that of the female survivor, Roebuck creates a voice for victims of trauma that are empowered and do not limit their sense of self to their experience.
Symbolizing the sometimes-fraught stages in the path to healing from trauma, Roebuck uses layers and shapes to camouflage the central figures of her artworks into the landscapes of the canvases. Intrigued by the concept of emotional camouflage, or masking oneself as a coping mechanism, the patterns in her artworks act as a source of visible protection. Conscious of the ways in which many survivors are triggered and unable to fully heal, Roebuck’s works offer her subjects refuge. In her most recent series of wood-cutouts, Roebuck depicts portraits of survivors that act as a remembrance for those that are not ready to be seen but are ready to be heard. Survivors often remember their attackers face, but who remembers the survivor’s face?
While sexual assault has been a central theme in Roebuck’s work, her artistic process also addresses the complexities of identifying as biracial. Her experiences as a biracial woman, the lost sense of belonging to a specific racial group and the confusion of feeling like she is in the wrong skin, or not “whole,” has been an ever-present struggle in her life, and a repeating concept in her work. Themes of pain and triumph, exclusion and acceptance materialize through a process of layering, sewing, and patchwork. Through an examination of self, traumatic memory, personal history, and an ongoing critical investigation of systemic boundaries and definitions regarding race, Roebuck questions if one can ever feel fully “whole” if society thrives on racial division.
ROY asks
What is your name and preferred pronouns:
Josie Love Roebuck, She/Her
How has art (whether it be your own or art in general changed you?
I am challenging the viewers understanding of what sexual assault is truly like for a survivor, while also challenging the social norms of what it is like to identify as biracial today. In turn I am hoping that my viewers grasp the true knowledge of such specific events and how other people’s actions can affect a person whether in a negative or positive aspect. Art has taught me a valuable lesson of appreciating and listening to others, specifically what they have endured through life. Through this lens it has taught me that every story is vital and that we benefit from each other’s experiences, so that we can bring about change in a way that matters.
How did you start your artistic practice?
My artistic practice began to flourish when I experienced a career ending injury in my college sport. It wasn’t until my junior year of college (received BFA 2019) that I began to see art as a career. With the help of my professor’s I witnessed how meaningful viewing and creating art could be for a person.
When a first-time viewer sees your work, what is the first word that your hope they think when looking at your work?
Courage/hope