A film made by 51Zero. Part of the Medway Superstars project, 2024.
Jake Wood is an artist based in Gillingham, Kent, whose work spans performance, sculpture, installation, collage, and photography. Drawing on a culture that is concerned with de-bunking the ideas of fitness, work, and exercise, he explores this by integrating his own use of the gym and physicality into his performances using tongue-in-cheek humour and slapstick comical gestures.
He enjoys the unapologetic attitude and approach that performative work offers – turning up to a place with his homemade props, doing what he needs to do, and then exiting again. Wood considers his practice inherently intrusive, invading different kinds of spaces and environments, the general public becoming unwitting participants captured on video.
Wood has recently been exploring the intersections between bodybuilding and queerness through the artist being a ‘gay bodybuilder’. Through these two paths, Wood has integrated this into his wider practice and seeks to make audiences aware of queer spaces that exist. It’s not just about ‘queer spaces’ but actually queering spaces.
Alongside his art practice Jake also works at the University for the Creative Arts and is a Creative Technologist for Electric Medway.