Art Installation Series:

Episodic Drift #8 by Jennifer Williams

April 2015 – March 2016

Jennifer Williams, Episodic Drift #1, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PA, 2012, pigment ink on Photo Tex paper, foam-core, acrylic paint, size variable

Jennifer Williams will be the second artist presented through the Art Installation Series. She will be installing her artwork Monday, March 30th through Thursday, April 2nd, during the following hours: from 9 am to 5 pm each day.

Williams’ large-scale site-responsive photographic installations are visual interpretations of urban morphology evident from a pedestrian viewpoint within specific neighborhoods. Through layered compositions she addresses the non-linearity of physical change in modern cities.

She is represented by Robert Mann Gallery in New York and has been widely exhibited throughout the country. Notable recent exhibitions include: San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, The Hunterdon Art Museum, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, UMASS University Museum of Contemporary Art, and Workshop in Venice, Italy. Honors include the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship, the Center for Emerging Visual Artists fellowship, the NARS Foundation International Artist Residency, and the Visual Studies Workshop residency, as well as the Aljira Emerge program. Her work has been featured in ARTnews, The New Yorker, Excerpt Magazine, Pasajes Arquitectura y Crítica, The Site95 Journal, and Photography Quarterly. Williams received her MFA from Goldsmiths College in London and her BFA from Cooper Union in New York. She lives and works in New York City and currently teaches at Cooper Union and City College, CUNY.

Episodic Drift

Ladders allow passage into unreachable, unfrequented spaces. Unlike stairs, which offer permanent, safe pathways, ladders are designed to be portable, temporary and movable. Their verticality causes a momentary physical and mental shift out of the horizontal planes we occupy. Using a ladder proficiently is a skill; one must trust it to provide a solid base while simultaneously trusting oneself to find a balance for the task at hand.

Episodic Drift explores the concept of the ladder as thought pattern, life path, and problem solver. As we age, our world becomes infinitely more complex, and the certainties of youth begin to unravel. A chain of beliefs is often thrown into question while existential chaos sets in. The journey from point A to B is rarely a straight line, moving forward isn’t always the solution. Episodic Drift traces the path between memory and reality, placing a form on time, leading toward a new awareness and clarity.

-Jennifer Williams