Jasmine Kiyomi Roe-Bose | Cnidagarigex

Artist Statement

CNIDAGARIDEX [Mushroom Jellyfish] brings into being an encyclopedic database of imagined ecology that introduces new, unusual lifeforms known as mushroom jellyfish. Inspired in part by the Pokémon game series’ creature directory, the Pokédex, and the blending together of diverse marine and mycelial ecologies, Mushroom Jellyfish uses a contemporary perspective of video game graphics and storytelling to skilfully construct each unique amalgamation, and combine a range of techniques with a touch of whimsy to explore varying degrees of speculative fiction.

Presented in a pixel art stylization achieved through the digital manipulation of collected images, Mushroom Jellyfish demonstrates a merging of real and virtual worlds, with this moving image piece in particular exploring the age of the biotechnological sublime as a form of “next nature” in a way that draws on more fantastical elements of video game realities as a means of showcasing these creatures as alternative and unconventional natural technologies.

Artist Bio

Jasmine Kiyomi Roe-Bose is an emerging Canadian photographer and multidisciplinary artist based between locations in Melbourne, Victoria and Northeast Tasmania. Kiyomi’s work focuses on themes revolving around the ocean and the fantastical, taking advantage of different mediums to effortlessly weave together and highlight nature’s “little wonders”.

Currently finishing up a Master of Fine Arts at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Kiyomi completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) in 2020. Kiyomi was featured as one of eight emerging female artists at Poimena Gallery’s Unfurl exhibition in 2020, and was one of forty finalists in The Tidal: City of Devonport National Art Prize the same year. Chosen from among 162 entrants, her work was featured in the Devonport Regional Gallery’s finalists’ exhibition, tidal.20. In late 2020, she was afforded the opportunity to work with renowned Australian photomedia artist, Anne Zahalka, photographing the Tamar Island Wetlands for reference in the 2020 iteration of Zahalka’s Wild Life series; Lost Landscapes. In 2024, Kiyomi featured works from her CNIDAGARIDEX [Mushroom Jellyfish] series in their inaugural exhibition at the RMIT School of Art Graduate Exhibition 2024.