Jennifer Jeannelle

RECEPTIVE, 2011

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From the Press Release: There is something distinctly human about Jennifer Jeannelle’s 30 ft x 9 ft wall installation entitled “Receptive” - nearly 5000 hand-pulled clay extrusions are arranged between 36 wood panels, the beeswax surface embedded with computer chips, wire and insects. 

 

Confronted with the installation, the viewer is immersed in a space vaguely familiar with an intimate view through a microscope but built to overwhelming scale.  The extrusions are unidentifiable as the pieces resemble such diverse interpretations as growth patterns of hair or fur, sprouts of plant life, small horns, wind-blown crops, microscopic pollen or aerial views of migration patterns.   The overall grid structure suggests classification and mankind’s attempt at controlling the wilds of nature.  There seems to be an historical and cultural sense of human and biological comparison, establishing a place in development and evolution.  Color plays a secondary role in the work, using neutrals to emphasize the indistinguishable objects and to create a contemplative surface with each panel encapsulating time, both ancient and contemporary. 

 

Adjacent to the large wall, smaller fragments of similar extrusions are arranged as an area of study, creating a narrative following the pieces through different stages of emergence and decay. 

 

Perhaps the experience is best described as a structured rhythm, an organic abstraction with repetitive qualities, breaking the boundaries between the hard-edged mechanisms of manmade materials and the soft organic qualities of natural objects – a way to understand the world through recognition and connections, association and classification.