Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
menu

Past Exhibitions


< >

Jennifer West: Film is Dead . . .

Nov 19 2016 – May 7 2017

Seattle Art Museum

Third Floor Galleries

Los Angeles-based artist Jennifer West creates experimental films and installations.

At a time when analog film has become largely obsolete, she works with old film stock and uses everyday household materials—including hot water, bleach, vanilla, coffee, vinegar, nail polish and more—to paint and erode the film emulsion and create colored splotches, patterns, and chance effects. When digitized and re-screened her deconstructive films have the most surprising and beautiful visual effects.

For her installation at the Seattle Art Museum, West will create a large-scale installation made of manipulated 70mm filmstrips, hung from the ceiling and spanning nearly the full length of the gallery. These recycled filmstrips and remnants from the analog age will also be digitized by the artist and the resulting film will be shown in the gallery, exploring the relationship between the physical and digital qualities of the medium.

Image:Film is Dead..., 2016, Jennifer West, 70mm film rolls, 16mm and 35mm filmstrips, ink, dye, food coloring, spray paint, nail polish, dirt, salt, bleach, thread, film cores, 3 flatscreen TVs (70mm film transferred to high definition video), 124 x 300 in., Seattle Art Museum, 2016 Commission, Photo: Mark Woods.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM