As a classically trained composer she fuses traditional instruments and orchestration with applications of digital technology. The work is an ongoing exploration of human identity, particularly our hidden lives and emotional landscapes and is often melancholic and epic in scale.
She completed her training at the National Film and Television School where she developed a passion for the merging of image, movement and music. She uses film and video in her work, often digitally manipulated and re-coloured, to inject a sense of hyper-realism, nostalgia, loss and hope into the pieces.
She has collaborated on a variety of projects with games developer and researcher Dan Pinchbeck since 2003, including a series of experimental game mods. The latest of these, Dear Esther, was selected for Prix Ars Electronica 2008 and has already been downloaded over 10,000 times. They have recently been commissioned to create a new experimental game mod: Korsakovia, designed to investigate how players cope when normal anthropomorphic cues attached to agents are removed.
She has exhibited internationally and has received commissions, residencies, grants and awards from organisations such as the The Wellcome Trust, The Royal Society of Arts, PVA, Werkleitz Gesellschaft, Labculture, Arts Council England, Hull Time Based Arts, Exeter Phoenix, CIBAS and Arts and Technology Partnerships. She was the first ever Artist in Residence at the New Media Centre at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and was also selected for the European Media Artist Residency Exchange programme in Germany.
Her latest film, i carry your heart, was shown around the world in 2008, including the prestigious Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Venezuela; several festivals in Germany; Poland; India and in the UK. She has recently been selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus 2009, a six day international creative summit in conjunction with the Berlinale Film Festival. She also sits on the Board of Directors for PVA Media Lab, Dorset.
A Child's Shadow
Jessica Curry Lyrics
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and bone and filled my lungs with mustard gas.
I have seen two brothers fall.
I have lain with holy wars and copulated with the autumnal fallout.
I have dug trenches for the refugees; I have murdered dissidents where the ground never thaws and starved the masses into faith.
A child's shadow burnt into the brickwork.
A house of skulls in the jungle.
The innocent, the innocent, Mandus, trod and bled and gassed and starved and beaten and murdered and enslaved.
They will eat them Mandus, they will make pigs of you all
and they will bury their snouts into your ribs
and they will eat your hearts!
The lyrics of Jessica Curry's song "A Child's Shadow" paint a bleak and haunting picture of war and its aftermath. The first stanza describes the experiences of a soldier who has witnessed the horrors of war up close. He has been knee-deep in mud and bone and has breathed in mustard gas, causing him to see his fellow soldiers fall. The second stanza speaks to the realities of war and its impact on innocent civilians. The singer has dug trenches for refugees and murdered dissidents in places where the ground never thaws. He has starved the masses into faith, highlighting the devastating effect war can have on communities.
The final lines of the song are particularly chilling. The singer speaks of a child's shadow burnt into the brickwork and a house of skulls in the jungle, suggesting that the violence and trauma inflicted by war will continue to haunt future generations. The repetition of the phrase "the innocent, the innocent" underscores the devastating impact war has on those who have done nothing to deserve it. The singer predicts that the coming century will be marked by even more violence, with people resorting to eating each other and becoming pigs in their pursuit of power.
Overall, "A Child's Shadow" is a powerful commentary on the devastating effects of war, both on the people involved and on innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. The song urges listeners to recognize the brutal reality of war and to work towards preventing it in the future.
Line by Line Meaning
I have stood knee deep in mud
and bone and filled my lungs with mustard gas.
I have experienced the brutality and horror of war firsthand, breathing in chemical warfare and standing in the midst of deadly battles.
I have seen two brothers fall.
I have witnessed the tragedy of brothers dying on the battlefield.
I have lain with holy wars and copulated with the autumnal fallout.
I have lived through the violence of religious wars and the aftermath of destruction in the autumn season.
I have dug trenches for the refugees; I have murdered dissidents where the ground never thaws and starved the masses into faith.
I have participated in the forced migration of refugees by digging trenches, committed murder against those who oppose the regime, and caused the starvation of people in order to force religious faith upon them.
A child's shadow burnt into the brickwork.
The haunting image of a child's presence is forever burned into the walls of this place.
A house of skulls in the jungle.
In the jungle lies a place where human skulls create a dwelling, symbolizing the atrocities committed there.
The innocent, the innocent, Mandus, trod and bled and gassed and starved and beaten and murdered and enslaved.
Innocent people have suffered and endured the inhumane treatment of being trampled, injured, gassed, starved, beaten, murdered, and taken as slaves.
This is your coming century!
These terrible events will only continue and worsen in the century that is to come.
They will eat them Mandus, they will make pigs of you all
and they will bury their snouts into your ribs
and they will eat your hearts!
The oppressors will dehumanize and mistreat those they subjugate, treating them like animals and devouring their very essence.
Contributed by Isaac H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.