LIZ JAFF

Liz Jaff is a visual artist who uses minimal geometry to explore memories of time and space. She rigorously explores the structural and aesthetic possibilities in ephemeral materials. Combining these with abstraction and repetition of architectural and natural forms, Jaff creates environments and objects that convey the specific feeling and character of a place or event. ‘What these objects are now doing is creating a new type of experience for us in the present based on whatever contemporary or personal information we’re bringing to how we view those objects.’ Liz Jaff

Ephemeral art often involves works that do not exist in a steady state, but change or decay slowly. The different physical state of ephemeral works represents a shift from the art object to communicative act. This shift is exemplified by artists working in the 1960s and their engagement with Buddhism and the subsequent work they produced demonstrates that the appreciation of transience is a reflection of wider cultural values. The growing interest in Buddhist philosophy and the engagement with transience at that period are discussed, not as cause and effect, but as both stemming from the same desire to find alternative forms of meaning and expression at a time when traditional structures of meaning were in decline. The use of non-traditional, non-durable materials and the incorporation of chance and ephemerality mean that the resulting worlds possess an 'inherent vice' which results in the demise or disappearance of the work. This is a key feature of ephemeral art, which distinguishes it from temporary works.

Liz Jaff actually started by making forms from abstraction, which took her a while to get to. She had a hard time with abstraction. Her goal was to be able to create experiences that felt very permanent in a gallery setting, but talked in a very abstract way about a very specific experience she was having. By using the abstract language she tried very hard not to project her particular experience. She decided that she wanted to work with existing architecture to create something that one couldn’t help but have a response to because we’re all used to occupying space and responding to architectural settings.

Liz Jaff lives and works in New York City and Brooklyn, NY, USA. She received her BFA in painting from The Rhode Island School of Design and has exhibited nationally and internationally, at Robert Henry Contemporary, Brooklyn NY, USA; City Hall Plaza, Boston, USA; The Art Complex Center of Tokyo, Japan as well as at Volta 11, Basel, Switzerland.

Open-Air Cinema:
Saturday, September 15, 2018, 9 pm