Jennifer West
Available Artworks
6th Street Bridge Film (16mm color and black and white film prints submerged, floated, dragged, scratched and corroded in the water and cement of the Los Angeles River Bed by Jwest and Lucie Birney under the former 6th Street Viaduct - repaired, painted with dyes and preserved - original 16mm shot in 2016 by Peter West and Jwest - bug driving by Lena Ruano - appearances on film by Kate, Chris, Rocio and others)
2020
9 minutes, 58 seconds
16mm transferred to 4K video
Edition of 4 and 2AP
"Each piece of Future Forgetting draws inspiration and figurative or literal material from the Los Angeles River–the often dry, concrete-encased waterway that curls through the notoriously heterogeneous quarters of the city in a circuitous comma, connecting the disparate parts of L.A. like independent clauses of a sentence. The show’s title is inspired by the epilogue of novelist and urban historian Norman Klein’s influential text “The History of Forgetting” (1997), in which he describes the “erasure of memory” that repeats itself in the constructed mythology and physical infrastructure of Los Angeles, as well as the deceptive veneer of downtown L.A.’s urban renewal. Future Forgetting uses the physical texture of film to describe Los Angeles as both a place and an image at once–an unstable construction that erodes and replenishes with time’s ebb and flow."
For the last ten years, Los Angeles-based artist Jennifer West has gained critical praise and recognition for her unique explorations into the process and materiality of filmmaking. Subjecting the celluloid in her films to a series of unorthodox, and at times bizarre, procedures West has sprayed them with perfume, skateboarded over them, doused them with makeup, pepper spray, household chemicals and even dragged them through tar pits. Through this physical manipulation of her film negatives, the artist underlines the performative aspect to her work—simultaneously highlighting the unintentional visual results of her interventions.
JENNIFER WEST SPEAKS ABOUT DAWN SURF JELLYBOWL
interview conducted by Devon Bella
Solo Exhibitions (selected)
2020
(forthcoming) Future Forgetting, JOAN, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Street Views: Emoji Piss Film, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louise, MO
Golden Corrosion, CAPITAL, San Francisco, CA, USA
Magenta Salt Crystal Pixel, Parisa Kind, Frankfurt, Germany
2017
Is Film Over? Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China
Action Movies, Painted Films and History Collage, MAN_Museo d'arte Provincia di Nuoro, Italy
"Film is Dead..." Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
2016
"Flashlight Filmstrip Projections" Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
2015
One Mile Film, Lisa Cooley Gallery, New York, NY
Solo Project, AMERICANAESOTERICA, Various venues, Plodiv, Bulgaria, Curated by Aaron Moulton
LACMA Screens, LA, CA
2014
Focal Point Gallery, Essex, UK
One Mile Film, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Vdrome.org, curated by Jens Hoffman, Filipa Ramos and Andrea Lisson, Introduced by Quinn Latimer
2013
Spirals, Salt and The Pill, MARC FOXX, Los AngelesIvory Snow and a Shark's Tooth, Mallorca Landings, Spain
2012
Highline Art, NYCAloe Vera and Butter, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK
2011-2012
Heavy Metals: Iron and Zinc, Vilma Gold, London
2011
Mascara and Mussels, Franklin Arts Works, MinneapolisShred the Gnar Full Moon Film Noir, West Gallery, MARC FOXX, Los Angeles
2010
Perspectives 171: Jennifer West, Contemporary Art Museum, HoustonNew Year's Series, Western Bridge, Seattle, Washington Paintballs and Pickle Juice, Kunstverein Nuremberg, Germany
2009
Pomegranate Juice & Pepper Spray, MARC FOXX, Los Angeles
2008
Electric Kool-Aid and the Mezkal Worm, Vilma Gold, LondonStatements, Art Basel 39, Basel, Switzerland (with Vilma Gold)Lemon Juice and Lithium, Transmission Gallery, GlasgowDrawing on Film, Drawing Center, New York (week long solo presentation)
2007
Occamy, MARC FOXX, West Gallery, Los AngelesThe White Room, White Columns, New YorkYeah Film, Project Room, Sandroni, Rey, Los Angeles2004Hallucination, MFA Thesis Show, Art Center College, Pasadena, California, USA