Bio – Jessie Growden

Jessie Growden is an artist and writer based in the Scottish Borders, and started making films in 2014. She is a founding member of the Moving Image Makers Collective. She grew up between a garden centre and a forest, and finds herself back in the forest more often than not. She studied design for textiles at Heriot-Watt University, and has worked in roles in knitwear, marketing, libraries, and arts organisations.

Artist Statement:

My work explores place, landscape and personal experiences through playful and also structural approaches to recording and presenting images. Focusing on objects, both the sentimental and the throwaway, and the history and lives of things and places, I look to create work both autobiographical and performative. While exploring the local and personal through a feminist lens, I aim to preserve these objects and places, while questioning what they really say to and about us. I work mainly in video, and also use sculpture, drawing and writing in my practice.

Screenings and Exhibitions:

2023:

Borders Art Fair, Springwood Park, Kelso (16/3/23-19/3/23) See the Borders Art Fair brochure here (I’ll be at stand 5!).

2022:

I Canoe Canoe Canoe
My mama told me I’m experimental, Saigon Experimental Film Festival (26/11/22 – 27/11/22)

I’m Not From Here
The Great Tapestry Gala, The Great Tapestry of Scotland (9/9/22 – cancelled)

Portrait Landscape
Creative Peebles Festival, Eastgate Theatre, Peebles (27/8/22 – 28/8/22)

Portrait Landscape (excerpt)
Borders Book Festival, Melrose (18/6/22) in the Moving Images Cinema Caravan. info here

6×6 Project
Joined the 6×6 project in their 28th edition, visit the site here

I’m Not From Here
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival 2022, Hawick (28/4/22 – 2/5/22) info here

25/1/22
Scottish Society of Artists 30×30 at Borders Art Fair (25/3/33 – 27/3/22) info here

Pink
Visual Arts Scotland annual exhibition, REVERB, online (19/3/22 – 29/4/22) info here

2021:

I’ve Only Been Here Half My Life
Alchemy Film & Arts – The Teviot, The Flag & The Rich Rich Soil (26/11/21 – 28/11/21) Info here

Treeline
Contributor to Ruth Maclennan’s commission for In the Forest Something Stirred, co-commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and Forestry England. 8/11/21 onwards Info here

I am Tall Meepa
Moving Image Makers Collective – Conversations with a Forest, 17/9/21 – 18/9/21 Info here

2020:

Photograph
Alchemy Live 2020, 1/5/20 Info here

Lines in the Sand
The Stove Network, Dumfries, 14/2/20 Info here

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
The Stove Network, Dumfries, 14/2/20 Info here

2019:

Lines in the Sand
CCA, Glasgow, 7/12/19 Info here

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
CCA, Glasgow, 7/12/19 Info here

Lines in the Sand
Filmhuis Cavia, Amsterdam, 6/12/19 Info here

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
Filmhuis Cavia, Amsterdam, 6/12/19 Info here

Lines in the Sand
Pix Film Gallery, Toronto, 15/11/19 Info here

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
Pix Film Gallery, Toronto, 15/11/19 Info here

Sixty Three Plastic Bottles and One Aluminium Can
Cinemaforum, Warsaw, 7/11/19 Info here

Lines in the Sand
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, 4/10/19 Info here

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, 4/10/19 Info here

Lines in the Sand
NAUTILUS: BEEF Shed at Supernormal Festival 2019, Oxfordshire, 2-4/8/19

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
NAUTILUS: BEEF Shed at Supernormal Festival 2019, Oxfordshire, 2-4/8/19

Lines in the Sand
A Cyborg’s Search for Meaning, Safehouse, London, 3/8/19 – 4/8/19

Scottish Borders Life Drawing Club Exhibition
Kelso Mens’ Shed, Kelso, 18/7/19 – 1/8/19

Lines in the Sand
Borders Book Festival, Melrose, 14/6/19

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
Borders Book Festival, Melrose, 14/6/19

Lines in the Sand
DunsPlayFest, Duns, 9/5/19

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
DunsPlayFest, Duns, 9/5/19

Lines in the Sand
Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, 5/5/19

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, 5/5/19

Lines in the Sand
Experiments in Cinema 14.2, Albuquerque, USA 16/4/19

Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection
FilmFort: Treefort Music Fest, Boise, Idaho, USA, 23/3/19

2018:

Circle #3
Winnipeg Undergruond Film Festival, 1/6/18

Sixty Three Plastic Bottles and One Aluminium Can
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, 5/5/18

Rising and Falling
Peebles Outdoor Film Festival, 29/1/18

2017:

Another Forest
Yarrow, Ettrick and Selkirk Arts Festival, 14-17/9/17

River Installation
A MIMC collaborative work.
Yarrow, Ettrick and Selkirk Arts Festival, 14-17/9/17

Rising and Falling
River Ways Festival, Hawick 7/9/17

Work in Progress
Alchemy Film & Arts, Moving Image Makers Exhibition Programme, 31/8/17 – 2/9/17

Circle #3
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, 2-6/3/17

Swings and Roundabouts
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, 2-6/3/17

Hedgehog Stories: Harestanes Countryside Centre Spring Exhibition 2017

2016:

TFOD
Creative Coathanger Festival, 1/10/16

Wild about Badgers: Harestanes Countryside Centre Spring Exhibition, Thurs 24 March – Sun 5 June 2016

2015:

Back and Forth
Edinburgh Artists’ Moving Image Festival, 12/12/15

Forest
Forman Hall Film Night, Roberton, 20/11/15

Forest 2
Beyond the Shutter – Yarrow, Ettrick and Selkirk Arts Festival, 12-20/9/15

Back and Forth
Moving Image Makers Collective Screening, Hawick, 24/6/15

Forest
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, 19/4/15

Painting the Park: Rose Hughes and Friends, Sunday 1st March – Sun 3 May 2015

Residencies:

Alchemy Film & Arts Artist in Residence, 2020

Alchemy Film & Arts Moving Image Residencies 2017, Café Tissardmine, Morocco.

Bursaries, Grants and Prizes:

Shortlist, The John Byrne Award, July 2022 for Landscape / Portrait drawings. See the entry here.

LUX Scotland bursary, DIY approaches to cameraless and 16mm filmmaking workshop, July 2022

Hawick Callants Club Common Riding Essay Competition winner (Adult) 2020
Read the essay here.

South of Scotland Visual Artist & Craft Maker Awards, 2019

SUPERLUX bursary, Screenwriting for Artists Workshop at Glasgow Film Festival, February 2017

South of Scotland Visual Artist & Craft Maker Awards, 2014 – 2015

Other Commissions:

2022:
Illustrations for The Teviot, The Flag & The Rich, Rich Soil, Alchemy Film & Arts

2011:
‘Colours of Chemistry’, St Andrew’s University, Fife

Artist Statement:

Screenings and Exhibitions:

2023:

Borders Art Fair, Springwood Park, Kelso (16/3/23-19/3/23)