Speculative Bubbles: Jess Ramm

About

Ramm’s chemical and physical experiments propose alternative ways of navigating humanity’s symbiotic relationship with the material environment while paying particular attention to the extravagance of human aspiration. Experiment number 7 in the chemistry set requires a mixture of salt and ammonium chloride to be heated over a flame. When a material turns straight from a solid to a gas, this process is called sublimation. When the ammonium chloride gas cools it regains solid form as a dusty white powder; a process called deposition. In this way the salt and ammonium chloride can be purified or reclaimed. Beyond this experiment, compounds and interacting substances are not always so easily separated, whether animal mineral or vegetable. There are credit-card particles gathering inside fish and radiocaesium particles flowing through ground water and mercury from energy efficient light bulbs filtering through the oceans.

In contrast to the heavy, sticky and dusty materials Ramm encounters when making sculpture, her printed images focus on material relationships that are normally too fleeting to be noticed. Through print she proposes visions of surreal spaces in which elemental forces are held at bay. Like pristine images of beaches and blue skies found in travel brochures, they present spaces and relationships laid out for the appreciation of the camera’s eye. In addition to physical forces, chemical compositions, metabolic reactions and contaminations, Ramm is curious about the narratives that inform civilisation’s ordering of nature.

The title Speculative Bubbles is influenced by Charles MacKay’s ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’ first published in 1841, in which he scathingly debunks a range of ‘peculiar delusions’ and ‘follies’ that have captured popular imagination throughout history, such as Tulip Mania, the search for the philosophers stone and the art of the Mineral Magnetisers among others. His sensationalist opinions were a product of their time, as the editors of Ramm’s copy of the book (2008 edition) are careful to point out. In accordance with his reputation, which was founded upon judging others, MacKay must now take his turn in the ring and be judged by today’s supercilious spectators. Narrative and metabolism are strange bedfellows, but they share a voracious appetite. Since the publication of MacKay’s account of 17th century Tulipmania, a cascade of bubbles have expanded and burst, including the dot-com bubble, uranium bubble, and numerous housing bubbles. In 2017 economists pronounced the arrival of ‘the everything bubble.’ When this bubble finally bursts, phantom speculative wealth and fictitious capital will be stripped from the financial system and excessive monetary liquidity will leak down the plughole. For the time being, consumption and desire continue to be propelled forward by waves of incurable and pernicious optimism, and it is likely that the enormity of our dilemma will only become visible on the horizon when it’s too late.

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." Charles MacKay

Artist Bio

Jessica Ramm trained at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee (2009), specialising in mechanical sculpture. In 2014, she trained at Edinburgh College of Art, where she studied printmaking, material culture and sculpture, positioned within alternative economies. Ramm’s current projects include a series of workshops exploring basic technology as a form of empowerment, a floating residency on board a wooden boat as well as various on-going collaborations with other artists which include: a radio documentary, magazine photo-shoot and presenting live sculpture in a disused office-block.

Recent exhibitions include: Extraordinary Popular Delusions, Piazza Shopping Centre, Paisley (2019); Cena#3:INTERSECTIONS, Glasgow Women’s Library (2019); From A to Z and Back Again, AC Institute, New York (2019); as well as solo presentations Earth Rise at Tramway, Glasgow (2015) and Personal Structures, Platform Easterhouse (Glasgow International, 2018).

The work in this exhibition has been developed over the period of two Edinburgh Printmakers’ residencies. Jess was the first artist to be awarded a residency in our Paisley studios as part of our EP Spaces project, which is a nationwide network of spaces for creative people. Following this, Jess undertook a print studio residency at Castle Mills.

This exhibition coincides with the Edinburgh Science Festival.

Click here to get your free ticket for the launch reception on Friday 3 April!

Image credit: Jessica Ramm, 'Dust', 2020