Cozette Russell
Cozette Russell (b. 1978, Exeter, New Hampshire) lives in Lee, New Hampshire, where she works from a barn studio near the land where she grew up. Working primarily in photography and collage, Russell explores the complexities of self through multiplicity. Her process often begins with a single exposure, which she may cut, layer, print, project, paint, and rephotograph. As she alters and rephotographs the image, one form becomes another, suggesting endless iterations. Her approach is rooted in a feminist tradition that understands photographs as spaces of intervention and refusal. Bricks tied with twine recur in her compositions and sometimes become sculptural elements. She also hand-embosses braille into some of her photographs using a slate and stylus. Her work spans processes from silkscreen and risograph to inkjet and gelatin-silver printing.
Russell uses self-portraiture and the body as material to consider ecology, disability, and care. She investigates a dialogue with the land where she grew up, drawing on the Welsh phrase y filltir sgwâr (the square mile), which describes how the land where one is born shapes a person's identity. Russell also makes work about accessibility, drawing on her experience of raising her son, who has physical and intellectual disabilities, and on her own autoimmune diseases, which she explores through collage, ideas of autoimmunity, and her body's inability to recognize itself.
Russell’s films and photographs have shown at various galleries and museums including SFMOMA, the Wexner Center for the Arts, NADA Curated, Harvard University, the University of New England, the University of New Hampshire, Antioch College, and A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, where she is a member.
cozetterussell@gmail.com
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