Contributing Artists

Jennifer Ratcliff

Exhibition Statement as Preserved in the SUGS/SITE Archives:

“Tumult” is a body of work that has been produced from July 96′ to the present. Its formulation is based upon notions of emotional extremes, focusing on the embodiment of anxiety, exuberance, frustration, and struggle. These extremes are inseparable from the process of creation itself, so that this work has become a result of the physical and emotional relationship between artist and surface that indeed borders on tumultuous.
The breadth of this work has been motivated by an interest in visual invention, in creating a vocabulary of marks and gestures which have emerged from my own inner gestures and impulses. Over time this process has resulted in the generation of marks that suggest an entourage of animated characters, and at once they seem to be tortured as well as lighthearted, tragic as well as hilarious. It is this dichotomy that I am most truly interested in for the purpose of creating a complex emotional narrative.
I see this work as reflecting the notorious ups and downs that occur in the studio. The agony of choicemaking, the elation of success, and the inevitable failures all establish a rhythm which has intensified the “tumult” that is seen here.