Installation Art
Installation art occupies the most important and primal aspect of my art practice. My conversation with spaces as both an artist and curator inform my installation work and create a thread of discourse that links my concerns and visions. It anchors as the essential connection to my inner ruminations. It holds infinite potential for expansion, growth, and engagement.
Video documenting installation by Michael Campbell
Ghost of the Flame
My recent residency and installation at Building 5 in NW Portland has expanded my relationship with materials, form, and space.
Ghost of the Flame: Hanging in the Balance
The process of excavating trees, removing the soil, and painting with flame was laborious, but it gave me a new appreciation for parts of a tree. Previously in my sculptural work (in my ghost brides and more) my aim was to create something completely anew. In the altering of trees and stumps, I felt that the beauty was already there, so my role shifted to being the seer…to revealing hidden parts to tell the story. The resulting installation weaves elements of home in a precarious setting where trees hang by their roots, and nests and fires litter the floor area. The dinner table is set with the consumption of vapid things. Lone figures are the ghosts of the flame. They remain as doomscroll-screen-watchers, to sit or stand frozen, and to sleep while old growth giants and rivers disappear.
In a way, I have been writing love letters to trees for as long as I can remember (through poetry, artwork and curating) and this installation is a continuation of this conversation.
From Oregon Arts Watch article by Dee Moore
"Ghosts of the Flame light up a 5,000 square foot space"
"In a sprawling industrial space at Portland's Building 5, artist Jennifer Gilla Cutshall creates a vivid installation of beauty with a warning about the imperiled planet."
Dee Moore
More from Dee Moore's Artswatch article...
"These motifs are an ephemeral presence and are reminiscent of the thin veil between life and death. The viewer’s reaction to the presence of death is visceral. It is cinematic and immersive.
An underlying narrative runs through the installation. Cutshall gives the viewer clues in the titles of each piece, and in her artist’s statement she boldly condemns the consumer culture that has so far been the theme of the Twenty-First Century. “The resulting installation weaves elements of home in a precarious setting where they hang by their roots, and nests and fires litter the floor area,” Cutshall explains. “The dinner table is set with the consumption of vapid things. Lone figures are the ghosts of the flame. They remain as doom-scroll-screen-watchers, to sit or stand frozen, and to sleep while old growth giants and rivers disappear.”
