J Whitehead - Don’t tell me how to feel about you

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J is an interactive artist who specialises in introspective and socially charged film, photography and interactive artworks. Her work tackles difficult social narratives with the aim of creating conversation, telling stories and creating spaces or situations in which the participants can engage with their own emotions.

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Don’t tell me how to feel about you is a film in three parts born out of the need to process feelings of hurt and mental distress from lovers and companions. J created a soft sculpture of a man whom she interacted with in order to simulate intimacy and companionship, allowing her to reconstruct and thus process hurtful interactions in a safe space. The film is about having a chance to say the things J didn’t get a chance to say at the time to lovers who were hurtful, abusive and destructive.