#jenna kuiper

[richardlevygallery]

Magician’s Table • #JayKelly • #JennaKuiper • #MattMagee

[richardlevygallery]

Coordinates

April 17–June 6

Closing Reception: Saturday, June 6, 6:00–8:00 pm

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present Coordinates, a group exhibition that showcases gallery artists working in the middle Rio Grande Valley area. This exhibition reflects the diverse range of media and artistic voice that exists in our community and is in partnership with On the Map: Unfolding Albuquerque Art + Design. Coordinates includes work by an anonymous artist, late 20th c., Thomas Barrow, Xuan Chen, Katya Crawford and Susan Frye, Jenna Kuiper, Emi Ozawa, Mary Tsiongas, Jennifer Vasher,  and Tom Waldron.

[don-dean]

Jenna Kuiper

 Jenna Kuiper is an artist who received degrees in Painting from The University of Montana and The University of New Mexico.  She currently lives and works in New Mexico, USA. 

  What caused the shift from straight photography to photograms? What do photograms do for you that painting and photography can't?

  It wasn't a conscious shift.  I had been working with middle schoolers for a summer art program and teaching a darkroom class.  It was a place of chaos.

I had never made a photogram before, but noticed that the students were getting a variety of different grays depending on the time they exposed the paper. My background is in drawing and painting, so I wanted to approach photographic materials with the intention of making a drawing.  The process opened up from there and I began to add different visual elements- screens, tape, cut out shapes and controlled timing.  I think of it as drawing in the dark.

  Photograms have allowed me to stop fussing.  Once the piece is developed I cannot rework it.  This process has been really good for me because I tend to get stuck when I have a lot of options for change.    

  All of my work, regardless of the medium, aims to create a context where ordinary things and objects transcend themselves.

    Can you talk about the physical work behind creating a 3-dimensional world within a flat surface using only light and time?

  I have boxes and boxes of shapes, textures and masking tools.  It is very magician-like. The physical work is in the planning-- the  drawing and cutting of shapes and masks, the careful set-up of my "palette,"  and then testing exposure times.  

  The difficult part is that it is mostly conjecture-- there is no way to respond to the process through sight like I would in a drawing because I cannot see the effects of the actions until the paper is developed, and at that point the tones cannot be changed. It's strange to work on a piece for 30 minutes and only have an idea of what is there.  In this sense, I think of the work as more mental than physical.  It is an exercise in memory and trust. I don't write the steps down.  Inside the plan, I allow myself to act on impulse. The element of surprise is the best part about making photograms.

    Do the still lives all exist with in the same realm of each other? Where is this place?

  I think so.  I don't see it as one specific place, but rather spaces where the unseen is acknowledged:  altars, places of ceremony and runes, temples.  The titles allude to this space as well:  Equinox, Vessel and Rune, Center of the Center.

      What happened to the color in the shift to photograms?

  The silver process.  I have tried painting on some of the photograms, but I like the monochrome in that it shows restraint. 

    It's easy to see art historical influence in the photograms, but can you talk about personal or emotional influence in them?

  The process feels really metaphorical to me. Concentrated effort with unforeseen results.  Accepting mistakes and letting go.  

  I've practiced yoga for over eight years, and am inspired by metaphysics and ways in which the physical is used to access the invisible.  

  For me, the darkroom fits these ideas in that it is a space between light and dark, form and dissolution-- a special processing space. 

     What do you think about when you are in the darkness of the darkroom? It's a really inward, meditative space for me.   Cave-like. The best part is when I'm not thinking, just listening to really loud music and dropping into the process of making. I wait until I have the space to myself to work because I need to spread out all of my shapes and devices and focus without talking or interruption. Usually this is really really late at night.  I love it.     When I get scared, I sing. 

       Ask yourself a question and respond.

  What objects are you looking at right now?

  I'm at my friend Caroline's house in Pueblo, Colorado.  On the shelf in front of me there is a vial of Ganges water from India, a small sculpture of Sagittarius, and an old Irish raffle ticket with faded blue ink.

  I love the things people keep.  

www.jennakuiper.com