JK Russ expresses hopeful futurity by syncing natural, urban, and fantastical settings in densely layered, sci-fi-inflected collages.
Las Vegas, Nevada | jkruss.com | @jkrusscollage | represented by Couper Russ Studios, Las Vegas; La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles
After growing up in the small coastal town of Motueka and graduating from art school in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand, collage and installation artist JK Russ gave up the beach for the desert, moving to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Long interested in the natural world and environmentalism led by Māori and other Indigenous groups, Russ adjusted her focus to the flora and fauna in the ecosystems surrounding the spectacular, artificial glamor of Las Vegas. As demands from local iwi (tribes or people) in New Zealand led to granting the Whanganui River legal personhood in 2017, Russ has found similar advocacy taking place in Nevada, where tribal leaders are fighting for National Monument protection of Bahsahwahbee, a sacred grove of juniper trees and the site of multiple 19th-century massacres of Western Shoshone people, in White Pine County.
Russ’s attention to Indigenous protest and models of strong female leadership in her life translates in her collage work as bikini-clad giantesses towering over familiar and alien landscapes. Resembling 1970s pulp sci-fi book covers, Russ’s work cites the landscape and wildlife of the American Southwest while introducing otherworldly elements. Floating spiral gold staircases, giant planets, and hybrid creatures like snakes with flower heads punctuate scenes of saguaro cacti and red rock formations.
As Russ notes: “The medium of collage has a strong focus on bringing elements together in unusual ways. This allows me to create environments where people, plant life, creatures, and sometimes sculptural art forms are all interconnected harmoniously.” This harmony is evident in Birdlife Oasis (2020), in which showgirls with bird heads occupy a lush oasis under a sky pieced together by feather-like strips of blue. Brightly lit buildings dot the horizon, suggesting the integration of the city with its unmanaged outskirts. While the strange casino in the image exists independently from this metropolitan sprawl, Russ proposes a linked simultaneity in which life forms in natural, urban, and fantastical settings coexist and influence each other.
This concurrency underlines the hopeful futurity evident in Russ’s work. Peace and protection of the planet might be attained without limiting human extravagance. However, Russ also warns that this future hinges on our ability to amplify Indigenous and female leadership.
