Jenna Bliss

In the organizer's words:

In February 2024, Haus am Waldsee is presenting two parallel exhibitions by the American artist Jenna Bliss (*1984 New York) and the Scottish painter Carol Rhodes (*1959 Edinburgh; † 2018 Glasgow). The use of temporally or spatially distanced perspectives, which allow new angles on established narratives, are characteristic of the work of both artists. Through these critical perspectives, geographical, social and historical contexts are made visible. By combining everyday observations, speculation and meticulous research, the films, photographs, sculptures and paintings in the two exhibitions form a space in which fact and fiction meet and the wider scope of structural human intervention becomes tangible.

Jenna Bliss uses research and intuitive associations in her artistic work to sift through personal and collective memories, question common assumptions and expand established narratives. She often focuses on historically marginalized topics, ranging from addiction and the pharmaceutical industry to the effects of 9/11 and the global economic crisis. Her long-format films, photographs, short videos and sculptures are motivated by impressions, encounters and observations in her daily life and their far-reaching links with social conventions and historical contexts. For her first institutional exhibition in Germany, Bliss is showing works from her ongoing series on the recent history of Wall Street, which she is expanding to include a new chapter on the global economic crisis of 2008. The new film True Entertainment (2023) is set in 2007 at the world's most prestigious art fair. The art world is booming within the three white walls of the fair stand, unaware of the impending financial crash. The film is based on a new cultural format of the late 00s: the scripted "reality" show. The genre not only shapes the film stylistically, but also creates a simultaneously seductive and alienating effect that oscillates between drama and satire. The film will be shown together with a constellation of older works that deal with the legacy of September 11.

Always anachronistically, Bliss borrows aesthetics and technologies from the time periods of her research. Through the montage of self-filmed, found and archive footage, in the form of text as well as images, Bliss elicits inherent ideologies from the material and reveals historical linkages.

Jenna Bliss (born 1984 in New York, USA) is an artist, filmmaker and video editor. She lives in New York, USA.

Price information:

Regular admission: 8 EUR Reduced: 5 EUR