Jennifer Taylor
I work with live performance, sculpture and film to explore ancient mysticism and imagined sci-fi futures. My practice considers the remnants of existence: neolithic structures, ritualistic artefacts and throw-away novelty ephemera. My overloaded installations and chaotic sets have a sense of crisis that draw upon the sublime horror or endless seas of landfill. I am interested in post-human possibilities and the fusion of technology with the body. My performances often explore processes of cyborgisation, cryostasis, resurrection and rebirth.
In anarchic live events, groups of performers join me to enact absurd make-believe ceremonies that link to historical fertility rituals, magic, witchcraft, science or religious observances. Mirrored pyramids, papier-mâché caves, foil stone circles and rubble-filled rooms become colourful illuminated stage sets.
These fantasy worlds are inhabited by performers adorned in ornate carnivalesque costumes and masks made from an eclectic array of low-tech found materials; bike lights, shiny fragments and broken malfunctioning technologies.
I endlessly gather objects from the urban landscape; from the streets and skips, repurposing these relics of consumerism into glittering ‘jewels’ within my immersive installations and elaborate makeshift costumes.
CV: Jennifer Taylor
Born in West Wales. Lives and works in Cardiff.
Education:
The British School at Rome; Creative-Wales Fellowship.
The Royal College of Art, London; Sculpture MA.
The Ruskin School: University of Oxford; BFA.
Residencies, Fellowships and Awards:
Wales Venice 10 Fellowship, with Arts Council of Wales and Artes Mundi, 2022-23.
a-n Time Space Money Bursary, 2023.
Situations Bristol Bursary Award, 2021.
Plymouth Contemporary, KARST, Special Recognition Award, 2021.
The Exchange Programme with Eastside Projects and Spike Island, 2021.
Freelands Artist Programme with Fellowship at g39, 2019-21.
Studio Fellowship, Castro Projects, Rome, 2019.
British School at Rome Creative-Wales Fellowship, 2017-18.
Ivor Davies Award, National Eisteddfod, The Senedd, 2018.
Unit(e) Residency, g39, Cardiff, 2017.
Artist in Residence, Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro, 2016.
Selected Exhibitions and Performance Events:
Experimentica, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, 2026 (forthcoming).
Od Arts Festival, Somerset, 2025.
Chance Festival, Spit and Sawdust, Cardiff, 2025.
Y Lle Celf, National Eisteddfod, Wrexham, 2025.
Art Weekender, Bricks, Bristol, 2024.
Into, East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol, 2024.
Summer Camp, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, 2023.
Box, East Quay, Watchet, Somerset, 2023.
Materia Nova, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Rome, 2022.
Sentinel (live performance) Plymouth Contemporary, KARST, Plymouth, 2021.
EXOLARIS (live broadcast performance) Freelands Foundation, London, 2021.
Lunar Dawn (live performance) g39, Cardiff, 2020.
UnderTheCounterCulture, The Rectory, Cardiff, 2020.
Ducato Prize, (installation with performance) Palazzo del Podesta, Piacenza, 2019.
Lunarium (installation with performance) Castro Projects, Rome, 2019.
Hypermaremma, Villa Lorenzo, Ansedonia, Tuscany, 2019.
Llawn Arts Festival, Llandudno, Wales, 2019.
Stargate, Commission for Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Wales, 2019.
Odds, TOMA Project Space, Southend, 2019.
Y Lle Celf, The Senedd: National Assembly of Wales, 2018.
Silent Stage, Yaga Project, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2018.
Shwsh, Reardon Smith Theatre, National Museum Cardiff, 2018.
Chamber (solo exhibition) Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan, Wales, 2018.
NOVA Exhibition, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 2018.
Lupercalia, live performance at Mostra, The British School at Rome, 2018.
Unperforming, Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios, London, 2017.
Silence Beach (solo exhibition) East Quay, Watchet, Somerset 2017.
Unit(e) Diwedd (with live performance: Empire) g39 Gallery, Cardiff, 2017.
Quina (live performance) A Gentil Carioca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, 2016.
Circo Cosmético (two-person exhibition) Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro 2016.
The Death of Venus (live performance) TJ Boulting Gallery, London 2016.
Absent Voyager (live performance) French Riviera Gallery, London, 2015.
Collections:
DRAF: David Roberts Art Foundation.
Oxford University Press.
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