Hello, I’m Jes Kalled. I write, and work across the mediums of photography, painting, film, and dance. Some of my published written and photography work can be found in Tokyo Weekender and Metropolis Magazine, or on my website.
I live in a very narrow (but beautiful) room with a window in Tokyo. I’ve been living in Japan for a decade, and often write about the various things that occur while trying to navigate self, and place.
Many of my projects are curious about memory, perception, and the relationship we have to our environments, and to ourselves. Swallow, though evolving, is a project that seeks to document, and map those curiosities.
More about Swallow;
スワローについて
By orienting itself through/around location, each chapter of Swallow observes the temporality of things: the beauty there, the pain and passage—the movement.
A paragraph from The city and her aloneness perhaps best describes Swallow’s origins:
“The city and her aloneness doesn’t feel solvable. Neither does the forest I came from. But in me I find them both taking up residence. I will attempt to document them here. I had forgotten that this was my original intention, for the world to swallow me up and tell me everything. To look outside windows, and have a sense of self, somewhere in the belly of things. I believe this is precisely how this project exists, episodic in nature, fertile and fragile, but in the belly of things—swallowed—as something eaten and yet it eats.”
Swallow as verb
1. to cause or allow (something, i.e. food or drink) to pass down the throat.
飲み込む nomikomu
2. take in and cause to disappear; engulf.
Swallow as noun
1. a migratory swift-flying songbird with a forked tail and long pointed wings, feeding on insects in flight.
ツバメ tsubame
Swallow arrives in your inbox once or twice a month for free, but more pages and mediums are offered behind the paywall. Though primarily a written publication, paying subscribers have access to a Swallow that has more.
In order to keep writing and making things, and ultimately survive as an artist, this publication needs paying subscribers to thrive. It’s my hope that the humanness of Swallow makes readers and viewers feel a little less alone. Let it be raw and metabolizing. I hope it reaches you, and I also hope it takes you somewhere else.
Subscription Offerings:
free:
entries once or twice a month
paid:
access to all entries of any kind or form
audio narration that accompanies some written entries
a feeling of deep satisfaction for supporting independent artwork + my sincere gratitude for your belief in my projects
payment & support
$0 - entries once or twice a month
$5 a month - all entries (as seen above in detail)
$50 a year - all entries with a little bit of a discount (17%)
$150 - Founding Members - all access + : this option is for people who have a deep interest in Swallow, art, supporting artists like me, and have the ability to do so. Founding members will receive a gift in the mail from me, and a handwritten letter of gratitude for supporting this endeavor.
follow Swallow on instagram here
visit my website here
