Responding to preconceptions of ceramics as an innocuous pastime and frivolous kitsch, Jackson employs strength in irony, sculpting chimerical beings abrupt in detail. For Fairyland, she expands upon her series of lip vases with two news vessels titled Baby Goth and Teen Angst.
From a distance, you’d be mistaken for thinking of these pieces as opulent heirlooms; an abstract leaf pattern cascading down the length of the neck. On closer inspection, however, their audacious brutality takes precedence. Emoji-like mouths with puckering lips and protruding tongues allude to the unsustainable overconsumption of pop culture whilst the gold teeth they bare reclaim referential roots.
Through gilt frames and rhinestone adornments, Jackson imbues personal signification, one that relates to the Mexican customs of beautification in dentistry in her paternal ancestry. Many modern Mayans, Mexicans and other indigenous cultures of South and Central America still practice tooth adornment. Jackson situates this custom within new contexts. She explores these aesthetic practices now from the experience of growing up with a Mexican-American father and uncles in California’s East Bay.