Jo Coupe creates sculptural works in a wide variety of materials and media that explore the relationships between science and magic. Employing the homespun experimental methodologies of the amateur scientist to recreate supernatural manifestations and transient natural phenomena. Articulated through a holistic knowledge of the natural world and its poetic resonance, Coupe’s work takes on a political significance by conflating opposing positions of hard science with folk ritual and the stereotypically gendered environments of heavy industry and the home.
Informed by investigations into the Natural Sciences, and ritualistic belief systems such as Louisiana Voodoo and Haitian Vodou, Coupe’s interest in the paranormal has led to periods of research into diverse environments: ranging from the industrial to the domestic. As such, her work shifts towards an analysis of objects and materials, and of the physical, cultural and metaphorical forces at play that pervade the meanings we commonly ascribe to them.
Jo Coupe was born in 1975 in Stoke, UK. She studied Fine Art at Newcastle University and at Goldsmiths College, London. Previous exhibitions include: Easy does it Supercollider, Blackpool; Pertaining to Things Natural... Chelsea Physic Garden, London; An Archaeology 176, London; Fade Away And Radiate, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; Tatton Park Biennial, Give and Take at Firstsite, Colchester, You Shall Know Our Velocity at BALTIC, Gateshead. She lives and works in Gateshead, UK.
