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providing San Antonio and Regional artists with a venue that promotes experimentation and community dialogue since 1995
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Jahjehan Bath Ives
In the Garden  
A new installation 
February 4 to 19, 2005

The idea of Eden is intriguing, it's the climate in which innocence was both born and lost. In the Garden started with this idea, of how the carefree gestures of individuals can have consequences they could not conceive of. When we dance we let go of ourselves and react to the music, the mood, the setting. Interested in exploring what is communicated in these freed gestures, Ives asked friends and strangers to dance for her and to allow her to photograph them. The resulting photographs were then edited, translated into line drawings and set into the backdrop of a florid wallpaper pattern to create a garden where figures dance alone or together and create their own stories. Their actions take on a new meaning in the environment composed of a multitude of figures.

A unique component of Ives work involves the use of cut-outs to render shadows on blank walls. Ives cuts shapes from translucent mylar, attaches the cut-outs close to the wall with straight pins and lets the play of light and shadow complete the work. "Her low-tech medium is highly effective. She traces images from (photographs) onto mylar, cuts the contours with an x-acto knife to about 1/8 inch 'lines'. A remarkable amount of detail remains -- the shape of a shoe, the arch of an eyebrow. . . . it's the shadows -- animated by the slightest movement in the air -- that the eye sees."

The shadows are a fundamental part of her work. The play between the physical and the intangible; the shadow cannot exist without the physical cut-out and sometimes the physical cut-out fades into nothingness without the shadow. In this new installation Ives has taken the opportunity to build upon her exploration of the shadow. Using a video projection as the light source for the cut-outs Ives has introduced a moving component to the installation. The video interjects scattered silhouettes of people dancing onto the wallpaper. The video was shot by Jahjehan Bath Ives and was engineered by Joe Ives.

Jahjehan Bath Ives was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA but she has called Houston, TX home for the past three years. She received her BFA from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA (1999). Her solo exhibitions include "Perhaps…Perhaps…Perhaps" at Daniel Martinez Gallery in Munich, Germany (2004); "Surface for Air" at Mackey Gallery in Houston, TX (2004); "Home is Where" at Project Row Houses in Houston, TX (2004); "Unspoken" at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, TX (2003); and more. Her work can be found in the collections of Yale University, the New York Public Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as numerous private collections. She is represented in Houston by Mackey Gallery and in Germany by Daniel Martinez Gallery.

Information for attached image: detail of In the Garden, 2005 by Jahjehan Bath Ives. media: shadow, projected video, mylar, pins

 

 


The hive of Swarm

The side of the hive of Swarm

Close up of study of Eden

The swarm of Swarm


 

 

cactus bra space, san antonio, tx
an artist run alternative art space
2008
info@cactusbraspace.com