Carlos/Ishikawa, London

Acquired from the above by the present owner

In Recent Jackets (2020), Issy Wood continues her sustained investigation into garments as psychological surrogates—objects that stand in for the absent body while quietly absorbing its anxieties, defenses, and desires. Comprising five cropped jacket paintings executed on linen, burlap, and velvet, the work foregrounds outerwear not as fashion, but as a second skin: protective, performative, and quietly loaded.

Wood’s jackets are rendered close-up and without wearers, their tight framing amplifying a sense of compression and restraint. Seams, quilting, and zippers become compositional anchors, suggesting containment rather than comfort. Painted across varied supports, the surfaces oscillate between softness and resistance. Velvet absorbs light and depth, while burlap and linen assert their material roughness, complicating the illusion of glossy, insulated fabric. This interplay heightens the tension between allure and unease that runs throughout Wood’s practice.

Sourced from fashion imagery and digital retail platforms, the jackets echo the language of e-commerce: isolated, polished, and suspended in neutral space. Yet Wood subtly undermines this commercial seduction. The garments feel overstuffed, airless, almost strained—less aspirational than claustrophobic. In this way, Recent Jackets aligns with Wood’s broader exploration of consumer objects as vessels for identity projection and emotional regulation.

Neither portrait nor still life, these works occupy a charged in-between. The absent body is felt rather than seen, and the jacket becomes a proxy for interior states—armor, concealment, or defense. As in much of Wood’s work, familiarity gives way to discomfort, revealing how easily everyday objects can become sites of psychological weight and quiet self-surveillance.