Jessica Slipp: Becoming Rock
May 6–August 1, 2026
Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall
Guest Curator: Bénédicte Ramade
Canadian artist Jessica Slipp has been performing and filming in various environments for nearly a decade, following a consistent protocol in which she enters the frame, unfolds a sheet of paper printed with rock textures, camouflages her body beneath it, and then leaves the scene. Repeated 40 times in her ongoing video series Becoming Rock, this gesture unfolds across Canadian landscapes ranging from unspoiled seashores, lakesides, and forests to sites shaped by human activity, including industrial compounds, parking lots, woodyards, and extractive sites. At once disconcertingly comic and marked by hopelessness, the work raises questions of disappearance, transformation, and symbiosis, subtly shifting the gaze from the human to the landscape and nurturing an awareness of the surrounding elements to the point of imagining a possible lithified future.
Related Events
Spring/Summer Opening Reception
May 6, 2026
6–8 pm
Jessica Slipp, Becoming Rock (Warehouse Rock), 2018–ongoing, multi-channel video (still). Courtesy of the artist
Artist Biography
Jessica Slipp
Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Jessica Slipp (Canadian, b. 1984) is an artist and educator currently living and working in Montreal. In her practice she uses photography, video, sculpture, performance, and print-based media to investigate notions of place and uncover new perspectives on the ideas of land and landscape. Slipp holds a BFA in photography (2012) and an MFA in print media (2019) from Concordia University, Montreal. She has exhibited at the FOFA Gallery, Montreal (2023); Neutral Ground, Regina (2021); and the Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto (2019). Slipp has also received numerous grants and awards, including from the Canada Council for the Arts (2021), and has participated in residencies at the Centre SAGAMIE (Alma, QC) and the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT).
Jessica Slipp: Becoming Rock
