A Transcript of Attentive Time
In this work, the still second of a bright blue sky is layered with the silver transcript of time and attentiveness from a laborious drawing process. I combine photography and drawing to intentionally play with specific meanings and time structures innate to both media.
In this combination and these works space feels concrete, but is also twisted and uncertain. Poetically on paper, I present the universal waltz between impermanence and form.
The materials I use for this work espouse the conceptual focus on time. I have a love for items with intrinsic history and first used antique ledger paper for that reason – it has belonged to, been touched and some cases used by other individuals. I carefully remove sheets from antique ledger books and break down the usual numbering of pages to produce sheets with a random presentation of numbers in each corner.
Although the grid used to organize and categorize still remains on the page, the linear notion of numbers and time is disturbed. When hanging the work on the gallery wall new patterns emerge. As a whole, the process mimics chaos theory, as an organized system moves into disarray, and with the addition of effort, produces a new compilation.
I relish working with the ubiquitous graphite pencil and using the common to create moments of poetry. Like ledger paper, the pencil also has a strong sense of historical time. For many, the pencil creates a sense of nostalgia, reminder of childhood and education.
But graphite is naturally made through a metamorphosis of organic sediments. A transformativeprocess that leaves behind the carbon based graphite. This knowledge makes graphite, for me,
a perfect tool to reference the similarity and interconnectedness between everything on earth, on the molecular level and beyond.
I combine drawing and photography to create a unified and poetic pieces that reflect on the ideas of history, time and interconnectedness. The photograph is a recording of one
instance, while drawing is a longer recording of my repeated visceral movements. One moment is merged with thousands of moments in a compression of space to present an interplay on spacetime as a merging of all events; past, present, and future.
I focus on images of the sky as a universal denominator for life here on earth. Symbolically the sky is rich. All of our oldest traditions have named it and tried to understand it. Countless gods and goddess have been thought to live there. Whoever you are on the earth the sky is over head and that ten-mile swath of gases is what allows us life.
Working with it is another tie into universality and history.
But as the sky is always there it is always changing, moment to moment and day to day. It is constant, but ever so fleeting. The photograph is one moment through the mechanics of the camera.
I describe the way I draw as both a meditative and loving process. To create the smooth gradated tones of these drawings, I have to enter a zone of focus and concentration. To give something your singular devoted attention is to me a generous act.
It takes time and I feel that with the prolonged touch I make with the surface of a drawing over and over again, I am imparting my energy, myself, if you well, into the work. It is another way of considering the artist hand.
The haunting poetics of contemporary physics have been present in my work for some time, especially once I had the opportunity to team-teach with a physicist. Inspiration for this work includes the reality that the universe is expanding at a greater and greater
speed, which means that at some point in time the night sky will be devoid of stars.
The sky with constellations named by the Ancient Greeks is as temporal as anything else just at a scale remarkably different from that of our lives. And I relate this to the spiritual as well. I am by nature a seeker and the work is about that as well. As I ask
about what forces organize the universe, I also ask what organizes our lives. There is much as a human I don’t know, but I have faith in the benevolence of it all.
Special thanks to L’Air Arts Paris.
More about Jennifer and her work :
ESTE TRABALHO É FINANCIADO POR FUNDOS NACIONAIS ATRAVÉS DA FCT – FUNDAÇÃO PARA A CIÊNCIA E A TECNOLOGIA, I.P., NO ÂMBITO DO PROJETO “UIDB/04042/2020”