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Naming The Place, Placing The
Name:
Mixed Media Work by Jennifer
Reifsneider
Exhibition
Dates: March 10 - June 10, 2001
Yellowstone Art Museum
When the
rain comes, it starts and makes its first mark on the ground,
followed
by another, then another. Soon, millions of droplets join in an
onslaught,
which
covers the ground. At first the ground is dry, then moist, then wet,
then
soaked, then wet again, then moist and then again dry.
This is
rain, this is sustenance, and this is time.
Jennifer Reifsneider frames the subject of time
and space as a universal yet personal experience. Her works wash away
the barriers between viewers who regard themselves as sophisticated
art connoisseurs and those who regard themselves to be outsiders to
art. The modern angst of questioning our very being is brought to
light by the familiar rituals of hands manipulating common materials.
The chair reminds
us of a human presence, our own human presence, surrounded by an
endless, even pointless, process of de/reconstruction. The cycle of
making piles of papers and the sounds of crumpling swirl around us as
we attempt to find the integrity of our own mind. To paraphrase
Emerson, "It is not enough that we are doing, its just, what are
we doing?"
© Jennifer Riefsneider, Six Months,
1997, Canvas and Thread.
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Minimalism,
which has obviously influenced Reifsneider, is a twentieth century
style of nonobjective art in which a minimal number of visual elements
are arranged in a simple fashion. This movement seeks to express
universal ideas through significant forms. It is rooted in western
industrial culture and traditionally used manufactured materials and
forms, yet in Reifsneider’s work the hand-made remains important.
This exhibition is in many ways a metaphor for the creative
process. We, the viewers, acknowledge the universe of floating chaotic
symbols, which we can reach out and grasp and order and interpret. We
share the experience of language. We unconsciously order letters and
words as we readily communicate and dialogue. We name the place, and
we place the name. This process is looked on anew through this
exhibition, where Reifsneider alters mediums and our spirit is lifted.
We are confronted with the connection between the essential purity of
the creative us and an examination of our own time and space.
The
rain falls again and we count the first few drops.
Reifsneider
continues to order meaning out of chaos.
The
floating universe of symbols that will cycle around and be used
and
reused in new and different ways renews us, the audience.
From
Naming The Place,
Placing The Name: Mixed
Media Work by Jennifer Reifsneider,
Stephen
R. Glueckert, Curator,
This
exhibition is touring through the Montana
Art Gallery Directors' Association
© Jennifer Riefsneider, field/silence,
2000-2001, dictionary and tape
Go
to the Yellowstone Art Museum
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