Jennifer West


Jennifer West is an American artist. She is known for her digitized films that are made by hand manipulating film celluloid. She serves as faculty at the University of Southern California at the Roski School of Art and Design. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
Wendy Vogel writes for Artforum.com, "Like her experimental predecessors, West forgoes narrative cohesion in favor of creating jumpy cuts and abstract visual collages––splicing, rolling, and drenching the celluloid using materials from Mylar tape to pickle juice, whiskey to candle smoke." Christopher Bedford wrote in Artforum on her work, "sexy, whimsical, painting-scale DVD projections walk that elusive line between pictorial modes with deftness, wit, and airy originality." Joanna Kleinberg wrote on her work in Frieze "the intermingling of materiality, feeling and identity creates a wild blend of synaesthetic experience wherein the substances of life literally and figuratively colour the film."
WWW jweststudio.com

Biography

Jennifer West was born in 1966 in Topanga, California.
She received her BA degree from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington with an emphasis in film and video. She later obtained her MFA degree from Art Center College of Design in 2004, where studied with Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Mike Kelley, and Diana Thater. She serves as faculty at the University of Southern California at the Roski School of Art and Design.

Work

West makes 16mm, 35mm and 70mm films by manipulating the film celluloid to a level of performance. The film emulsion might be doused with perfume, Jack Daniels or pepper spray, skateboarded on or dragged through tar pits. West is also known for the Zine booklets that she produces featuring the production stills showing the making of the films. The destroyed and distressed films are then digitized and shown as looping video projections in museums and art galleries.
She is best known for the live performance, "Skate the Sky", staged at the Tate Modern in London where she invited skateboarders to skate over filmstrips taped to the floor of the Turbine Hall. Other significant commissions include, "One Mile Film" where the artist taped a mile-long filmstrip to the length of the High Line walk-way in New York City for one-day allowing the visitors to leave their mark on the film by writing messages, drawing, and walking on the filmstrip. The damaged 58 minute, 40 second film was digitized to high-definition and shown as a digital projection onto the side of a building on the High Line. She has also made commissioned projects for Institute of Contemporary Arts London's Art Night Aspen Art Museum and as an Artist in Residence at EMPAC at RPI in Troy, NY and at MIT List Visual Arts Center.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • Painted Cat Hacker Film, Midnight Moment, Times Square Arts, New York, NY
  • Experiments with Holofans and Film is Dead..., Stefan Lundgren Gallery, Mallorca, Spain
  • Future Forgetting, JOAN, Los Angeles, CA
  • Is Film Over?, Yuz Museum Shanghai, Shanghai, China
  • Action Movies, Painted Films and History Collage, Man Museum, Nouro, Sardinia, Italy
  • Film is Dead..., Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
  • Flashlight Filmstrip Projections, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
  • One Mile Film, Lisa Cooley Gallery, New York, NY
  • Spirals, Salt and The Pill, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • Selected Films by Jennifer West, High Line Art, New York, New York
  • Aloe Vera and Butter, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, England
  • Heavy Metals: Iron and Zinc, Vilma Gold, London
  • Perspectives 171: Jennifer West, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston
  • Western Bridge, Seattle, Washington
  • Paintballs and Pickle Juice, Kunstverein Nuremberg
  • Pomegranate Juice & Pepper Spray, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, California
  • Electric Kool-Aid and the Mezkal Worm, Vilma Gold, London, UK
  • Lemon Juice and Lithium, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
  • Occamy, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, California
  • White Columns, New York, New York

Projects and commissions

Immersive installations

  • Golden Corrosion, CAPITAL Gallery, San Francisco, CA Flashlight Filmstrip Projections, 2014/2016Film is dead..., 2016

Filmography

  • Marinated Film – the roll of 16mm I had in the fridge for over ten years , 2005Double Fast Luck Film, 2006Attraction Film , 2006Hot, Spicy, Tingle Film , 2006Comfort Food Film , 2006Yeah Film, 2006Tar Smell Film , 2006Tar Pits Film 2006Paintball Film , 2006Psychosomatic Films #1 -5, 2006Dirty Film , 2006Odor Film 53 , 2006Odor Film 71 , 2006Odor Film 2 , 2006Naked Deep Creek Hot Springs Film , 2007Whatever Film , 2007Nirvana Alchemy Film , 2007Popped Cherry Film , 2007My Milk Is Your Shit/Nirvana Alchemy Film 2 , 2007Led Zeppelin Alchemy Film , 2007Regressive Squirty Sauce Film , 2007Organic Biodynamic Natural Food Film , 2007A 70MM Film Wearing Thick Heavy Black Liquid Eyeliner That Gets Smeary , 2008Rainbow Party on 70MM Film , 2008Skinnydipping Carbon Beach Malibu Film – In Front of David Geffen‘s House , 2008Riot Grrrl Alchemy Film , 2008Roadtrip Between LA and Seattle Film , 2008Idyllwild Campfire Smell Film , 2008Daisies Roll Up Film , 2008Daisies Cut Up Film,2008
  • Malia the Babysitter Guitar Hero Film , 2008
  • I’m a Stain/Nirvana Alchemy Film 3, 2008
  • Electric Kool-Aid Fountain Swimming Film, 2008Green M&M's & Mezcal Worm Film , 2008Seriously Film , 2008Skate the Sky Film , 2009Lavender Mist Film/Pollock Film 1 , 2009Goodbye Green River Killer Film , 2009Hollywood Sign Film – for Peg Entwistle , 2009Vampire Obsession Film , 2009Shoes on the Telephone Wire Axe Body Spray Patchouli Film , 2009Smoke, Darts and Mirrors Film , 2010Shred the Gnar Full Moon Film Noir , 2010Topanga Beach Houses Imminent Domain Rewind Film, Malibu Times , 2010
  • I ♥ Neutrinos: You Cant See Them but They are Everywhere , 2011
  • Neutrino, Gamma, Alpha, Quantum Dots Film , 2011
  • 5 Hour Circular Xray Diffraction Film , 2011Just Kids Film Necklace – for Patti Smith Film, 2011Dawn Surf Jellybowl Film , 2011Mascara Rorschach Film , 2011Heavy Metal Sharks Calming Jaws Reversal Film , 2011Heavy Metal Sharks Calming Jaws 2 Trailers – Jumping the Shark Film , 2011Drummed Rock Film, 2011One Mile Film , 2012Behind the Ivory Snow Powdered Detergent Green Door All-American Girl Film , 2012Spiral of Time Documentary Film , 2013Salt Crystals Spiral Jetty Dead Sea Five Year Film , 2013 Arrid Extra Dry 1965 TV Commercial Film , 201344 Mile Film , 2014
  • Terrazzo Floor Spiral Film, 2014Film Title Poem, 2016

Zines

West often produces Zines for her exhibitions and performances. Early Zines were made with black and white production stills from the making of her films. They have been given away at her exhibitions for free. Most zines have been published in editions of 500.

Zines to date

  • suck my left one. 2018. Laser prints on clear film. spiral bound. 240 pages. Artist book edition of 5.
  • Movie Memories. 2016. Color xerox. Published by ICA London on the occasion of the 2016 Art Night London. 6 pages.
  • Spirals of Time. 2013. Two-color risograph. Published by Golden Spike Press. 28 pages. Edition of 500.
  • Accordion Zine. 2011. Hand-taped. Produced by Jennifer West in conjunction with "Heavy Metals: Iron and Zinc" at Vilma Gold, London.
  • Smoke, Mirrors, Darts and Lavender Mist. 2010. Produced by the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Texas in conjunction with Perspectives 176: Jennifer West. Curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver.
  • Shred the Gnar Full Moon Film Noir. 2010. Produced by the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado in conjunction with performance and exhibitions, Shred the Gnar Full Moon Noir. Curated by Matthew Thompson.
  • Wheels Ink Ho-ho's and Melon, Skate the Sky Film Production Stills. 2009. Produced by Vilma Gold and Marc Foxx Gallery in conjunction with performance and screening at Tate Modern, London, UK. Curated by Stuart Comer.
  • Pomegranate Juice and Pepper Spray Production Stills. 2009. Produced by Jennifer West and Marc Foxx Gallery in conjunction with "Pomegranate and Pepper Spray" solo exhibition at Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles.
  • Electric Kool-aid and the Mezcal Worm Production Stills. 2008. Produced by Jennifer West in conjunction with solo exhibition, "Electric Kool-aid and the Mezcal Worm" at Vilma Gold, London.
  • Jennifer West. Production Stills 2008. Produced by Vilma Gold in conjunction with Jennifer West's Statements Presentation at Art Basel 30, Switzerland.
  • The W.C. #19 Jennifer West Production Stills. 2007. Produced by White Columns. Curated by Matthew Higgs.