JR Roykovich renders the veil thinner by embedding historically loaded artifacts in spectral installations.
Houston, Texas | jrroykovich.com | @jrrstudio
Ghosts have been following JR Roykovich their entire life. No matter where they go, the Houston-based artist, who uses they/them pronouns, frequently finds themselves traveling down haunted roads or living adjacent to sites of mass murder. Their fate seems intrinsically tied to the uncanny, so it is no wonder their work often manifests in bizarre and otherworldly environments.
Interdisciplinary in practice, Roykovich creates intricate and immersive installations using photography, video, and found objects to probe themes of queerness, the sublime, consciousness, and lived experiences. Many of the objects—or “artifacts,” as Roykovich calls them—contain histories of colonialism and capitalism. They range from pieces of construction machinery to box fans and beach ephemera. The act of reclaiming them is cathartic, allowing the artist to navigate trauma and erasure, and imagine speculative futures and realities.
In their 2022 solo exhibition Travel in Light Years at the Galveston Artist Residency, Roykovich excavated objects from dig sites on Galveston Island, arranging and suspending them in the shape of a boat. Disco balls, a fog machine, and windows tinted with dichromatic film interacted with sunlight to create hazy, phantasmic environments that transformed throughout the day as the Earth rotated. As glowing hues of dreamy yellow gradually shifted to rich magenta, the gallery became a space where personal, collective, and material history converged.
In Roykovich’s practice, supernatural happenings are not ephemeral but embodied. “[My] work posits unexplained phenomena and their interpretations as inherent manifestations of the queer experience,” writes Roykovich in their artist statement. They approach materials and spaces through this lens, researching and considering how tangible and intangible materials communicate experiences and connect back to identity.
For Roykovich, the alien is familiar, which explains why they are constantly seeking out this other realm in their practice. The surreal and the uncertain are not uncomfortable because they are part of the artist’s very existence.
