Variant Static (Primary Title)
Jennie C. Jones, American, born 1968 (Artist)
Jones’s audio collages, like her paintings, draw upon our understanding not only of music history, but the history of listening. The sound work, Variant Static, is subtle and reminiscent of how the world once collectively anticipated a song recorded on vinyl—the very moment the needle makes contact with the record or, conversely, the end of a song when the needle lifts from the record’s surface. In recovering the archaic, yet visceral aspects of listening, Jones asks viewers to consider the legacies of sound in our culture and how it has evolved with technology.
Drawing upon the aesthetic histories of listening as well as the canonical musical and visual arts avant-garde movements of the late 20th century, both of which were exclusionary in their celebration of men—African American among the free jazz movement, European and American among Minimalist paintings—Jones delves deep into the aesthetic imprints of the moment to insert herself as African American and female within these traditions. As such, the artist’s practice serves to expand the narratives around the avant-garde and its legacies.
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