Jennifer Douglas
Douglas's work compels us to unravel a multiplicity of meaning
entangled in the formality of all kinds of objects and procedures.
Spanning drawing, sculpture, and installation her work reveals
structures of thought that are both abstract and literal. Her
materials are carefully selected for their distinctive qualities or
characteristics: painted wooden shapes, brightly coloured ropes and
twines, luminous reflective plastics, and dirty pools of pigmented
latex engage us in an aesthetic vocabulary that is idiosyncratic and
unmistakably her own.
This immediate sense of playful intuition belies a far more rigorous
and demanding investigation of 'matter' and its conceptual
significance. Key to the work is Douglas's ongoing exploration of
colour through several stages. Firstly, colour inherent in and applied
to the found object; then in relation to architectural and sculptural
space; and finally in a reinterpretation of the above that in turn
informs her drawings and collage.
As you move through Douglas's work her drawings begin to act as codes
that need to be cracked before you can attempt to fully experience her
sculpture and installation:
"Through the process of making the drawings I start to illustrate
materials and processes that I use when making sculpture - the
drawings are my method of thinking through the making of an object or
collections of objects to form a sculpture"
The sculpture acts in the same way, whereby through the process of
making and experimenting with material, form, and placement one is led
to a place where the sculpture provides an entry point back into the
drawing. Douglas's installations become a place of transition 'betwixt
and between' worlds of understanding, where indeterminacy and
disorientation enable an opening up to something new.
"There is a strong relationship therefore between the making of both
drawings and sculptures as they are undertaken in a similar way,
that's why I think its difficult to separate them in exhibiting them
as the one informs the other both visually and in the way that I make
them."
Jennifer Douglas was born in Amersham, England in 1975 and studied
Fine Art at Newcastle University before moving to Glasgow in 2003
where she completed an MA in Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art. Her
works have been shown in galleries and museums internationally
including at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Tramway
(Glasgow), Hales Gallery (London), Museum of the Central Academy of
Fine Arts Beijing (China), and Tensta Konstall, Stockholm (Sweden).
Forthcoming projects include a new billboard commission for The
Jerwood Space, London. In 2007 Jennifer Douglas received an Arts
Council England Award towards the research and development of new
work. Douglas currently lives and works in Gateshead.
Shown by
Workplace Gallery, Gateshead
entangled in the formality of all kinds of objects and procedures.
Spanning drawing, sculpture, and installation her work reveals
structures of thought that are both abstract and literal. Her
materials are carefully selected for their distinctive qualities or
characteristics: painted wooden shapes, brightly coloured ropes and
twines, luminous reflective plastics, and dirty pools of pigmented
latex engage us in an aesthetic vocabulary that is idiosyncratic and
unmistakably her own.
This immediate sense of playful intuition belies a far more rigorous
and demanding investigation of 'matter' and its conceptual
significance. Key to the work is Douglas's ongoing exploration of
colour through several stages. Firstly, colour inherent in and applied
to the found object; then in relation to architectural and sculptural
space; and finally in a reinterpretation of the above that in turn
informs her drawings and collage.
As you move through Douglas's work her drawings begin to act as codes
that need to be cracked before you can attempt to fully experience her
sculpture and installation:
"Through the process of making the drawings I start to illustrate
materials and processes that I use when making sculpture - the
drawings are my method of thinking through the making of an object or
collections of objects to form a sculpture"
The sculpture acts in the same way, whereby through the process of
making and experimenting with material, form, and placement one is led
to a place where the sculpture provides an entry point back into the
drawing. Douglas's installations become a place of transition 'betwixt
and between' worlds of understanding, where indeterminacy and
disorientation enable an opening up to something new.
"There is a strong relationship therefore between the making of both
drawings and sculptures as they are undertaken in a similar way,
that's why I think its difficult to separate them in exhibiting them
as the one informs the other both visually and in the way that I make
them."
Jennifer Douglas was born in Amersham, England in 1975 and studied
Fine Art at Newcastle University before moving to Glasgow in 2003
where she completed an MA in Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art. Her
works have been shown in galleries and museums internationally
including at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Tramway
(Glasgow), Hales Gallery (London), Museum of the Central Academy of
Fine Arts Beijing (China), and Tensta Konstall, Stockholm (Sweden).
Forthcoming projects include a new billboard commission for The
Jerwood Space, London. In 2007 Jennifer Douglas received an Arts
Council England Award towards the research and development of new
work. Douglas currently lives and works in Gateshead.
Shown by
Workplace Gallery, Gateshead
