Jennifer Danos // Sculpture
jabstress@hotmail.com
Artist's
Statement
Untitled (Gravel 1)
Installation view
2003
Sculpy clay, mixed media
Pieces approx. 3/4" d. each
View from the street of the entrance to grass field (with parking lines
and grid of trash cans) and x-shaped gravel patch.
Untitled (Gravel 1)
Detail
Spheres and cast gravel made of white Sculpy clay were spread across
an x-shaped gravel patch in a grass field used in the fall as additional
parking.
Untitled (Blue 1)
Installation view
2003
Paint sample, mixed media
2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
Blue square hovers in space between studios and ceiling with grid and
skylights.
Untitled (Blue 1)
Detail
Untitled (Green Flags 1)
Installation view 1
2003
Each square of flag 2 5/8" x 2 5/8"
Green flags with grass print were installed at regular intervals between
the evenly spaced trees along the west side of First Street for two blocks
across from construction.
Untitled (Green Flags 1)
Installation view 1
2003
Each square of flag 2 5/8" x 2 5/8"
Green flags with grass print were installed at regular intervals between
the evenly spaced trees along the west side of First Street for two blocks
across from construction.
Artist's Statement
"[Cause a] rupture of our surroundings and call into question the manner in which we locate ourselves visually, subjectively, contextually... evaluate and criticize ourselves and our relation to space."
— Olafur Elaisson
"The function of art work is the stimulation of sensibilities, the renewal of memories of moments of perfection."
— Agnes Martin
What defines the relationship between the art object and the world? What defines the relationship between the artist and his/her audience? What determines the relationship between the viewer and an artwork? While I understand these categories to not be mutually exclusive, I am interested in where they cross boundaries. When does one relationship dictate another? Each of the relationships asks us to rely on a different set of decisions and senses to determine where is the artwork.
Investigations have included questioning the role of the art event and the site in terms of presentation and reception. For example, what does it mean to have an artwork presented in a controlled environment (a gallery) versus seeing the artwork accidentally (a site) versus only seeing the artwork in documentation (a non-site)? How does one form affect the perception of the others? I am interested in the layering of categories of information and the possible connections; how one might construct a combination of different experiences into one simultaneous form or gesture.
To ask these questions, I replicate forms that exist in the world (pebbles, property flags, partitioning ribbon) and insert them into physical sites which then turn that visual phenomenon into an active site that can be happened upon, visited or experienced through photographic representation. This form of studio activity is related to the ideas of art as activity, intervention and representation.
My studio practice also consists of an in-depth analysis of site, looking at indoor and outdoor environments, raising the question of what is constructed in terms of natural or artificial, accidental or intentional. I am also interested in the differences between the form of "natural" patterns as opposed to imposed pattern, and how these modes of intentionality (or lack thereof) can affect how we perceive a given object/site. I try to separate the layers and determine what "belongs," what does not "belong" and how one decides that. I am thus interested in the unpredictable moment when the non-artist, when outside of a constructed art space, recognizes the work as other than what "belongs" there. The instant when one’s perception changes and the layers between the object and the environment form a new relationship.
