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Primer:
Jennifer Douglas
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When Entropic Paradise (2018) was first made it would have appeared very obviously made from silver. After just a few months, the silver leaf applied to the painted canvas changed colour, acquiring hues of pastel pink and creating a stark contrast to the painted layer beneath. With the passage of time and fluctuation in climates, the metal surface continues to transform unpredictably the appearance of the work.
Shifting colours from silver to pink, and now to gold, Entropic Paradise, is an example of Douglas's interest in the possibilities of materials and the performative qualities that these confer to her work.
"I think there is something more intriguing about a material that is declining, that is somewhat out of control"
- Jennifer Douglas
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For Douglas the exploration of material through touch is essential to the process of making: it determines the outcome as the finished work captures the subtle movements, gestures and actions of the artist's hand.
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The final stage in the artist's creative process is to scratch and pierce the canvas with throwaway utensils such as pens, craft knives and screwdrivers. Through these actions Douglas is breaking the rhythm of the monochromatic surface and creating tension between the precious nature of the silver and the destructive nature of these gestures.
Image: detail of Jennifer Douglas, Entropic Cosmos (Silver I), 2019
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"One specific language which abounds in Douglas's polyglottic practice is the language of materials. Materials do not communicate simply on the literal, cerebral level of written or spoken language but physically through a syntax of forms, properties and processes"
- Iris Priest, 2014
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Jennifer Douglas was born in 1975 in Amersham, UK and she currently lives and works in Newcastle, UK. She studied Fine Art at Newcastle University and completed her MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2005. Exhibitions include Crab Walk, NGCA, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK; Confusion in her eyes that says it all, Maria Stenfors, London, UK; Tip of the Iceberg, Contemporary Art Society, London, UK; From Acanthus to Zebrawood Cooper Gallery, University of Dundee, UK; Beijing/Glasgow, Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Exit Strategy, Tramway, Glasgow, UK; The Games we Play, Barcsay Sala, Budapest; VANE Export, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden; You Shall Know Our Velocity, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. Her work is represented in collections such as The Government Art Collection UK; Tyne and Wear Museums Collection, UK. Simmons and Simmons, UK.
