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WORDS FOLLOWING HER SEXUAL ASSAULT MISTRIAL
READ STATEMENT
After ending a complete social media blackout earlier this month, today Taiwanese-Australian singer, producer, songwriter, and multimedia artist Jaguar Jonze unveils a new, raw and intimate body of work, victim impact statement.
Comprised of an EP featuring three new, powerful new tracks, an accompanying self-directed short film, self-portrait album artwork, and an evocative release statement – victim impact statement sees Jaguar Jonze reassert her creative vision and artistry with a project that signifies a creative rebirth for the artist.
The launch of victim impact statement comes after five years spent at the frontlines of the #MeToo movement in Australia, with Jonze often putting her own creative endeavours aside to advocate for change that would see assault survivors like herself better protected.
This new, comprehensively curated project sees Jonze once again flexing her multidisciplinary muscle with one driving message – she will not be constrained to a box of anyone else’s devising. In sharing with the world the emotions from victim impact statement, Jaguar Jonze announces her return to the spotlight on her own terms, a freedom to create and be an artist without conditions imposed upon her.
Jonze’s writing, recording, and mixing on the EP brings to life the intensely emotional journey told across the project’s three songs. The stripped back acoustic melodies of “whiplash” open the record with a commanding statement about Jonze’s journey over the past five years, with gentle-yet-powerful vocals that convey a deep grief as she sings “Feel like I’m doing the time for somebody’s mistake…”. Second track “nothing left ” begins with a breathy whisper that belies a strong despondency at Jonze’s treatment by the outside world, with the richly layered production reminiscent of the clinically detached way the world has demanded a performance of Jonze as an activist. Closing track “full stop ” represents the closure of one chapter and a simultaneous new beginning for Jonze, with its assertive and hopeful, almost triumphant, undertone recognising her determination to return to her calling of creating art.
The accompanying short film, also entitled victim impact statement and created by Jaguar Jonze, viscerally encapsulates the intense journey that she has been through over five years with the same smoothly flowing journey as the EP. At times wistful and despondent, while being defiant and assertive in other purposefully provocativemoments, the short film chronicles the pervasiveness of Jonze’s ordeal through many aspects of her life over the past five years and rejects the notion that she should perform as dictated by outdated societal structures.
Sonically, the delicate, soaring melodies of victim impact statement is a left-turn from the edgy sound fans would be more familiar with across Jaguar Jonze’s previous releases, including the dark leaning pop of her 2022 debut album BUNNY MODE. This shift is deliberate…
With the release of her new EP, Jonze has penned her own victim impact statement to provide her own closure, while also marking the beginning of her next chapter – both musically and personally. For her next chapter, Jonze is turning her attention to a potential second album, working with notable international collaborators to pave the way for a new direction.
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Jaguar Jonze says, “ I became an artist to tell stories and break the cycle that has followed me my whole life. The cycle of slipping through the cracks of the complex systems built to protect society. I have worked hard to not let that pain define me. However, in 2019, I became the story when my body was taken without my consent.
When I made the choice to go public with the incident, it came at an insurmountable cost. I allowed the music industry, media, government, justice system, and the weight from the pain of many other survivors take my body too.
For the last five years, I have relived the violation of my body again and again in every room, on every stage, across newspapers, screens, websites and whispers until I was no longer one of you. Every door that I walked through became conditional and I put on the heavy mask I was expected to wear…the mask of a perfect victim and tireless advocate.
I am proud of the ripples I created – in conversations, commitments, the music industry, National Cultural Policy and legislation. But as the public world slowly started to let light in, my private world was overcome with darkness. At the end of 2023, the criminal court trial of the two perpetrators ended in a mistrial after a merciless cross examination and relisted late 2024 to start all over again. Through the advocacy and justice system, I learned that sacrificing my body, my life alone, was never going to take down the structural violence so prevalent in our society.
The victim impact statement EP + short film was written as a gift to myself; to return my voice and own my body – this is my protest. To remind myself why I came into art and music in the first place. To take back my potential and take up the space I deserve in this world. To rely on myself for justice.
I am not the sexual assault I never consented to. I am no longer the story. I am one of you.
I am an artist that needs the freedom to connect and create again.”
READ THE FULL STATEMENT HERE
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Where Jaguar Jonze’s 2022 debut album BUNNY MODE saw her triumphant and unwilling to be complicit in a culture, and industry, of silence – victim impact statement is a bold reclamation of self and the start of what comes next. It sees Jaguar Jonze taking back the pieces of herself she has tirelessly given away – her body, her art, her voice.
Jonze is well known for her genre-crossing high art practice, blending boundaries between visual art, music, fashion, film and technology. 2023 saw Jonze bring her show ‘ The Art of Broken Pieces’ to the Sydney Opera House for VIVID to perform a part concert, part contemporary opera, part installation conceptual piece interrogating the intersection of life and art through powerful storytelling and thrilling visuals. Other significant mixed-medium collaborations Jonze has lent her artistry to include a project with Christian Louboutin for their AW20 Cube Collection (being selected for film festivals internationally and receiving numerous awards), an art car for BMW, Reebok, Nike x Footlocker, Gucci, Moncler, Adobe, Adidas, COACH, Harley Davidson x VOGUE, Royal Enfield, TEDx and more. The impact of Jonze’s work across both artistry and advocacy has earned her accolades such as The Australian’s ‘Top 100 Cultural Leaders List 2022,’ Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘ Trailblazers: 25 Women Reshaping Australia’ and VOGUE Australia’s ’21 Women of 2021.’
victim impact statement will also be available for purchase in a highly limited vinyl release, with Jonze once again turning her hand to photography under her Dusky Jonze moniker to self-shoot the album. The EP’s release will also be supported by performances from Jaguar Jonze, who will appear alongside Japanese poetry rapper Haru Nemuri (with whom she teamed up for two singles last April, including “ ANGRY ANGRY”) for two intimate shows. They’ll perform at Melbourne’s Workers Club on Tuesday 27 February and The Lady Hampshire in Sydney on Thursday 29 February.
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victim impact statement TRACKLISTING
1. whiplash
2. nothing left
3. full stop
JAGUAR JONZE 2024 TOUR DATES (WITH HARU NEMURI)
MELBOURNE: Workers Club – Tuesday 27 February
SYDNEY: The Lady Hampshire – Thursday 29 February
Tickets are on sale via https://jaguarjonze.com/tour/
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