Jamie L. Luoto
Jamie Luoto is one of 60 artists and photographers featured in our latest book, Care. See more from “I Believe in Ghosts” below.
I believe in ghosts. I believe those who weren’t and won’t be believed. I see the ghosts that
haunt us.
This series of painted self-portraits give a first person survivor’s account to create a deeply
intimate encounter between artist, subject, and viewer. I bring to light the aftermath of sexual
assault by illuminating the lasting psychological impact of repeated sexual trauma on an
individual. The “me too” movement exposed the breadth of sexual violence — this work
reveals the depth to which these acts of violence and the accompanying dismissal, disbelief,
and shaming impact individuals.
In these works I explore my psyche and experience with complex post-traumatic stress
disorder (C-PTSD), blurring the line between external presentation and internal reality to bring
to light the unseen injuries of sexual trauma that invade and haunt mind and body. Symptoms
such as flashbacks, nightmares, dissociation, and intrusive thoughts and images are
suggested using mirrors, portraits within portraits, and phallic forms, such as condoms and
erect sheets, which materialize as ghosts throughout the work. At times the ghosts’ presence
takes on a swarm-like quality, suggesting a looming threat. Felines act as familiars; bearing
witness and embodying the subject’s emotional state.
Using the visual language of European masterworks, I manipulate the familiar to reframe
classic imagery and narratives. I invoke the spectacle of visual pleasure as a means to beguile
the viewer while encircling them with an undercurrent of perverse imagery. Together the
collective body of work functions as an installation intended to actualize an experience akin to
the inescapability of living in a body haunted by sexual trauma.
Jamie L. Luoto’s Website
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