About Me
Hello, my name is Jennifer. I have constantly busy little hands in work ranging from art to archaeology. I mess in a variety of media and like to learn new crafts. Orignally from the Midwest, I currently attend Syracuse University as a graduate student. My mother is my constant inspiration and strength. My work wouldn't be possible with out her. Thank you Mom. Please enjoy . . .
Artist's Statement
Long-term illness is diagnosed through the medical institution, but it is also interpreted in personal and emotional realms. I consider what it means to be ill and examine the roles of the patient, the doctor, and the hospital in treatment and healing.
Ideas of healing, repair, and the body's response are central to the work. The amount of time spent in search of diagnosis and in the hospital is reflected in my processes. Artifacts collected from the hospital become crafted memorials of the experience, and through this, are humanized. The methodical repeated practice becomes a distraction of the illness in the body and events in the hospital.
Monotony, repetition, and duration of my craft explore the longevity of illness and the feeling of sameness associated with being in the hospital. While enclosed in a hospital room, life continues on in the outside world and in a sense, passes the patient by. Time becomes an element that exists in a slow motion within the hospital and is hurrying by beyond its doors.
By combining video, photography, object, and installation, a cohesive multidimensional experience is created. I further use space by placing and creating the work in the hospital setting, as well as transferring it into settings not associated with the medical.
The photographs and objects serve as both a documentation/artifact of an event in the hospital, as well as a story in themselves. The video series is an exploration into the mental state of illness and how a patient functions both in the physical body and in the mind. In both, unusual narratives are created that walk a space between reality and the surreal.