Reproductive technologies are changing ideas of parenthood and conception. Genetic heritage, pregnancy and social parenthood can be spread between different people. In their solo exhibition Peripheries, Ja Jess draws on their own experience donating eggs to explore how the boundaries of the body, understandings of motherhood and identity and traditional concepts of the family are shifting.

For Ja Jess, a body emerges from its periphery. An egg cell can continue to exist outside the body from which it was retrieved and contribute to the development of another human being. Freezing eggs or embryos makes it possible for many years to pass between egg retrieval and pregnancy. Ja Jess also raises questions about branches of medicine and biology that remain strongly shaped by binary thinking. At the same time, Ja Jess considers the changes and uncertainties that a child brings to their own life and the life of another. ‘I/i live for y/our uncertain life’ is a line from Ja Jess’s anatomy. The joy of making queer parenthood possible sits alongside the question of how one comes to feel close to and responsible for, someone not yet known.

The exhibition brings together works in an installation of sound, light and sculpture. For the composition, Ja Jess translates selected sequences from their own DNA and a reference genome¹ into musical notation based on chants by Hildegard of Bingen. In the performance Donor: The Rumours Are Heirs, they and Gaia Pellegrini combine the composition with spoken text and movements that draw from the reflexes of newborn babies. The work draws connections between biological inheritance and cultural transmission.

¹ A reference genome is an assembled DNA sequence used as a standard for comparison. It provides a coordinate system for locating and analysing newly sequenced DNA. The human reference genome incorporates sequence data from several individuals.

Ja Jess (b. 1998, lives and works in Düsseldorf) studied under Carola Dertnig at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and in the classes of Johannes Paul Raether and Gregor Schneider at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 2023, they completed their studies as a Meisterschüler under Schneider. Their artistic practice takes socially shaped roles as its starting point. Ja Jess inhabits these as a form of ‘Social Drag’, exploring them within specific contexts of work and everyday life. From these experiences, they develop texts, vocal compositions, performances and sculptural works.

Their work has recently been presented at Galerie Steinek as part of curated by, Vienna, AT (2026); Belmacz, London, GB (2024, 2025, 2026); PACT Zollverein, Essen, DE (2026); K21 – Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, DE (2025); Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, DE (2025); Pageant, New York, USA (2025); Museum Goch, DE (2024); and Dortmunder Kunstverein, DE (2024).