AUDIO
ROOTED AND BRANCHED
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4.
Jenny Michel
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AUDIO
Jenny Michel
The artist Jenny Michel explores scientific explanations for various phenomena in our world. To her, these explanatory models represent possible perspectives, not absolute truths. Jenny Michel sees how we engage with this knowledge, that is, which statements and arguments we accept and which we reject, as a method of positioning ourselves in the world. Where do we feel a sense of belonging, and where do we not? What place do we occupy in the world? And how do we see our role in it?
Jenny Michel often translates these questions into expansive installations made up of fragments of scientific diagrams, technical illustrations, and encyclopedias. She combines these with her own personal notes. Over the years, Michel has continued to develop her installations, rearranging them or taking them apart in order to integrate individual pieces of older works into new ones.
Here you can see the pieces Cracks in my Mind – Nature is Data, Hidden Encyclopedia, and Soft Rains, along with the installation Fallen Gardens.
Cracks in my Mind – Nature is Data extends over three walls, but a connecting element binds it together. A formation of small wooden panels and cardboard cutouts runs across multiple canvases of different sizes. This line of panels extends beyond the boundaries of the canvases and gives them a spatial dimension. In Hidden Encyclopedia, Jenny Michel overlays pieces left over from her earlier works onto pages and fragments of encyclopedias. We can no longer read the knowledge once printed on the book pages. The works in the series Soft Rains feature fine lines that interweave to form abstract shapes.
Jenny Michel has been working on the installation Fallen Gardens since 2013. Here, hundreds of adhesive strips bearing information from old encyclopedias pour from the ceiling to the floor like a waterfall. The installation calls into question our scientific approach to the world.
Jenny Michel often translates these questions into expansive installations made up of fragments of scientific diagrams, technical illustrations, and encyclopedias. She combines these with her own personal notes. Over the years, Michel has continued to develop her installations, rearranging them or taking them apart in order to integrate individual pieces of older works into new ones.
Here you can see the pieces Cracks in my Mind – Nature is Data, Hidden Encyclopedia, and Soft Rains, along with the installation Fallen Gardens.
Cracks in my Mind – Nature is Data extends over three walls, but a connecting element binds it together. A formation of small wooden panels and cardboard cutouts runs across multiple canvases of different sizes. This line of panels extends beyond the boundaries of the canvases and gives them a spatial dimension. In Hidden Encyclopedia, Jenny Michel overlays pieces left over from her earlier works onto pages and fragments of encyclopedias. We can no longer read the knowledge once printed on the book pages. The works in the series Soft Rains feature fine lines that interweave to form abstract shapes.
Jenny Michel has been working on the installation Fallen Gardens since 2013. Here, hundreds of adhesive strips bearing information from old encyclopedias pour from the ceiling to the floor like a waterfall. The installation calls into question our scientific approach to the world.