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Jennifer Danos (b. Chicago) comes to Chattanooga by way of Berlin, Germany, where she lived for almost three years working as a professional artist, gallery assistant, and translator. Jennifer also participated in a six-month artist residency at Kuenstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Bad Ems where she created new site-specific installations for locations throughout Europe, such as the Staatskanzlei Mainz, Artissima Art Fair in Torino, the Thermen am Viehmarkt in Trier, and Mila Kunstgalerie in Berlin. She has shown nationally and internationally at the Art Paris Art Fair, Galerie Analix Forever in Geneva, Temple Contemporary in Philadelphia, and the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. Jennifer just returned from Berlin where she organized “Fieldwork: Summer Salon,” a series of events with an international line-up of artists and cultural producers, which included an exhibition of her new ceramic work inspired by an artist residency in Darien, Georgia. Prior to joining the faculty at UTC, Jennifer taught for eight years in the Fine Arts and Foundation Studies departments at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design.

Jennifer Danos /// Artist Statement

“[The work must cause a] rupture of our surroundings and call into question the manner in which we locate ourselves visually, subjectively, contextually... evaluate and criticize ourselves and our relation to space.”      – Olafur Eliasson 

My artistic practice has long been concerned with bringing the viewer to the present moment as an objective observer, cognizant of the various factors that influence thoughts and actions while interacting with a given space; factors such as biased ideas and definitions, learned habits, or reactions to meticulously designed elements. I was and am concerned with the slippage between expectation and what is actually there, using sculptural interventions to encourage the viewer to reconsider their preconceived notions about an environment, how they define what is there, and their relationship to it. 

Earlier in my artistic practice, I employed the use of repetition and mimicry in order to make one aware of what is really there. Entering my installations, one is confronted with elements that are familiar, but most likely outside of typical notice: those things in the periphery that one is conditioned to look past when entering a particular environment. I would take advantage of architectural details that are physically evidenced through different activities: from construction, to human use (proper and improper), to care and repair. Or sometimes these details are the product of chance. Each artwork is made for a specific space, addressing the subtle features in the physical site that make a psychological impact on the viewer. For example, I have re-created debris that accumulates on windowsills, re-imagined patterns made in the process of constructing building surfaces, and re-presented throw-away objects left behind in a given space. By providing a second, unforeseen glance, I allow the viewer to take notice of the environment, removed from expectation. 

The most recent series of installation work started with an investigation of the overlapping ideas between my artistic practice and my personal activities and interests. including the principles of Buddhism and meditation practices. Meditation is fundamentally concerned with two themes: transforming the mind and using it to explore itself and other phenomena. My investigations include both a cultural and a personal analysis of themes surrounding “practice and repetition,” relating to ideas about meditation and the breath, time and awareness, and real and perceived outcomes. For example, I apply aspects of Buddhism to various activities in different environments, including walks taken repeatedly along the same path in order to better understand the process of contemplation through repetition, while also considering the difference between being in an urban space versus being in nature. In this series, I am deepening my understanding of both expectation and contemplation, seeing both conditions from a different viewpoint as I use practice and repetition to reveal their true processes. While researching visual language to use for my architectural installations, I discovered the labyrinth, which became a vehicle for these ideas and questions. 

My newer creative research is a return to the sculptural object and a more direct relationship between my body and material through intuitive gesture. It was inspired by a recent artist residency in coastal Georgia. I was overwhelmed by the history of the site in relationship with the incredible – and new to me – colors, textures, and forms of the landscape. The entire sensory experience created a compelling and irresistible dynamic with the intellectual investigation, and so the trajectory of my creative research and my current artistic project were completely altered by my time in Darien. Working with clay allows me to have a direct relationship with the material through my body, to have an immediate impact on the form through the intricacies of my movement, and to evoke the history of human existence through this ubiquitous element while functioning within a contemporary context. I’m very simply making something out of nothing, inviting both a sense of emptiness and infinite possibility. While the visual experience and the material outcome are vastly different than my architectural installations, the approach and the process are still in line with my ongoing exploration of practice and repetition, attention to the present moment, and the tension between our inner and outer perceptions.

Ultimately, I want to engage the conscious and subconscious nature of observation to encourage individuals to actively see each experience by questioning the constructed intentions of all components within that space, and reconsidering habits and definitions.

“If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one. We usually think that if something is not one, it is more than one; if it is not singular, it is plural. But in actual experience, our life is not only plural, but also singular. Each one of us is both dependent and independent. After some years we will die.”      – Shunryu Suzuki

* All images courtesy of the artist.