Jessica Mallios

Signaling Light, a new exhibition by artist Jessica Mallios, examines the oblique histories of women lighthouse keepers from America’s Early Republic through the twentieth century. Through multi-channel video, photographs, and drawings, Mallios reflects on themes of labor, gender, and technology. Filmed over five years at lighthouse sites across the United States, the work weaves asynchronous accounts of keepers and diverse landscapes. Exploring acts of homage and historical inflection, the film uses ambient sounds of locations, readings of various writings by women keepers, interviews with next of kin, and with Sally Snowman, the last auxiliary lighthouse keeper in the United States. Using frottage from lighthouse stair treads, the drawings and darkroom photographs pursue questions about the marks of time and their absence.

Women Who Kept the Lights and Mind the Light, Katie, by the late mother-and-daughter co-authors Candace and Mary J. Clifford, provided the initial research on women keepers and their logbooks. The Clifford books make clear the lapses in archives and the fraught histories of women keepers, who are mostly unknown, drawing attention to how gender manifests in society. The Cliffords made valuable contributions to the history of women keepers as independent professionals, sourcing from the National Archives; Candace Clifford in particular created a subsection entitled “female lighthouse keepers” for the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s largest public research archive.

A process of wayfinding propelled this project. Conceived in a remote fishing village in Iceland in 2020, Mallios set out to connect with a woman lighthouse keeper who was also a weather station reporter. Due to winter weather, ship and road closures, Mallios was unable to reach her. That experience only reinforced a deep curiosity about the experience of this trade, so reliant on the human eye and hand—to communicate, literally, through light to a world near and far. Inspired by Mallios’ own experiences of caregiving, loss, and motherhood, the project explores parallels between personal histories and larger structures that shape labor, gender, and visibility. Signaling Light examines the significance of these iconic beacons and the largely forgotten, fragmented histories of the women who kept them illuminated.

About the Artist

Jessica Mallios is an artist and educator based in San Marcos, TX. She earned an MFA from Bard College and is an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. Her work is guided by an abiding interest in the physicality of light and space, explored through photographic, time-based, and installation practices. Her research-based approach responds to sites and structures of cultural and architectural significance. Select exhibitions include Atelier Siegele Foundation in Darmstadt, Germany; Higher Pictures in New York, NY; The Contemporary Austin in Austin, TX; Oregon Contemporary in Portland, OR; Artpace in San Antonio, TX; Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX; The Center for Ongoing Research & Projects in Columbus, OH; and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, TX. Her work has been featured in Artforum, Art Ltd, The New Yorker, and Whitewall Magazine, among other publications.