Jennifer Douglas
I am interested in the tensions that emerge when familiar materials are displaced from their original function and context, revealing both formal and metaphorical possibilities. Time operates as a persistent thread throughout the work—not only through the histories embedded within materials, but also through acts of accumulation, deterioration, preservation, and obsolescence.
I am particularly drawn to materials that occupy a precarious position between permanence and disappearance, or which bear evidence of changing technologies and cultural shifts. Previous works have incorporated newspaper ash, defunct lightbulbs, VHS tapes, carbon paper, maps, and metal leaf—materials that carry traces of use, redundancy, and transition. These substances function not merely as materials but as repositories of cultural and personal histories. By reconfiguring them through labour-intensive processes, I examine how material transformation can generate new readings while maintaining a dialogue with the object's former life.
Lived Experience
Drawing is integral to my practice and operates as both a generative and investigative tool. It provides a space for experimentation and intuition allowing ideas to evolve independently as works in their own right while simultaneously informing the development of more sculptural lines of enquiry. Through drawing, I test relationships between form, scale, surface, and materiality, creating a continuous dialogue between two-dimensional and three-dimensional thinking.
My work ranges from large-scale installations to intimate sculptural objects. Regardless of scale, I seek to create encounters that reward sustained looking and invite contemplation. Through subtle material shifts and carefully constructed spatial relationships, the work encourages viewers to slow down and engage with its quiet complexities. Interested in the intersection of material presence and absence, permanence and impermanence, I aim to create works that provoke curiosity and reflection, drawing attention to overlooked histories, fragile states of being, and the passage of time that shapes both objects and experiences.
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