What does it mean to be deeply embedded in the contradictions of the world we live in — and still find ways to laugh at them?
For artist Jeremy Hutchison, confusion, absurdity and humour are not ways of avoiding difficult questions. They are tools for examining them.
Working across performance, sculpture and video, Jeremy’s practice explores power, consumer culture, labour and the hidden systems that shape our everyday lives. His work often begins by entering the very structures he wants to question, whether that means spending time inside factories, fashion shoots or global production networks.
Across projects developed in places including Palestine, Senegal, India, Mexico and Taiwan, Jeremy has examined the stories we are sold about consumption, progress and value. By intervening in these systems from within, he reveals the strange contradictions that often sit beneath the surface of ordinary experiences.
His work has been exhibited internationally, including at institutions such as Fondazione Prada, the ICA, Modern Art Oxford and the V&A. But this conversation is not simply about the subjects Jeremy explores. It is about the creative approach behind them.
We talk about how artists can challenge accepted ideas without simply replacing one certainty with another. Jeremy reflects on the idea that what we often describe as “common sense” is not always natural or inevitable, but something shaped by culture, power and the systems around us.
His work uses humour and disruption to interrupt those assumptions. Rather than presenting a straightforward argument, he creates situations that make people pause, question and reconsider what they thought they already understood.
A key theme throughout the conversation is the uncomfortable reality that artists are never completely outside the systems they critique. Jeremy speaks openly about being implicated in the same structures he examines, and how that tension can become a productive place from which to create.
Because perhaps the most interesting work does not come from standing at a distance and declaring certainty. It comes from being willing to sit inside complexity and ask better questions.
We also explore Jeremy’s relationship with commercial culture and spectacle. His work often borrows the visual language of advertising, fashion and consumerism, only to turn those forms back on themselves. By exaggerating or disrupting familiar imagery, he reveals the assumptions and desires hidden underneath.
Alongside this, we talk about permission and the importance of taking creative risks. Jeremy shares why artists often need to act before they feel completely ready, and why some of the most exciting ideas emerge when you are willing to experiment, fail and look slightly foolish along the way.
Collaboration is another important thread in the conversation. Jeremy reflects on the fact that significant creative risks rarely happen in isolation. The people around us — the collaborators, friends and supporters who understand what we are trying to do — often make ambitious ideas possible.
As he puts it, you do not necessarily need 700 contacts. You need a handful of people who genuinely understand and believe in the work.
We also talk honestly about sustaining a creative life over time. About mental health, parenthood, the realities of working within the art world and the importance of finding a rhythm between retreat and connection.
Because creative careers are not built only through moments of visibility and expansion. They also depend on quieter periods of thinking, making and returning to the work.
Ultimately, this is a conversation about contradiction. About creating work that can be serious without losing playfulness. About questioning the world while recognising that we are all part of it.
And about the possibility that sometimes the most powerful way to reveal something true is not to explain it more clearly, but to make it strange enough that people finally stop and look.
Now let me introduce you to Jeremy Hutchison.
What We Learned from Jeremy Hutchison
What stays with me most from this conversation is Jeremy’s willingness to embrace contradiction.
There is often a temptation to believe that artists need to position themselves outside the systems they examine. That they need to have a clear answer, a perfect argument or a completely resolved perspective.
Jeremy’s work suggests something more complicated — and perhaps more honest.
The artist is often inside the very systems they are questioning. They are consumers, participants and observers at the same time. Rather than seeing that as a weakness, Jeremy treats it as the starting point for deeper enquiry.
There is also something powerful in his use of humour. Difficult subjects can sometimes become inaccessible when they are approached only through seriousness. Jeremy reminds us that laughter, absurdity and play can create openings. They allow people to encounter uncomfortable ideas without immediately becoming defensive.
His reflections on collaboration are equally valuable. The idea that success comes from knowing everyone, constantly networking and building an enormous circle of contacts can feel exhausting. Jeremy offers a different model: find the people who understand the questions you are asking and who help you become braver in your work.
Perhaps the wider invitation from this episode is to embrace the uncertainty that comes with making something genuinely new.
To question the things that feel fixed.
To stay curious about the contradictions around you.
And to remember that meaningful creative work often begins in the messy space between certainty and confusion.
Because that is where new possibilities tend to appear.
