Mapping Loss, an Exhibition by Jennifer Palmer

Carly Jarboe
A457
Professor Kutis
24 September 2017

Mapping Loss: An Exhibition Review

Entering through the doors of the Barr Gallery the viewer first encounters, Between the Clouds.  The next pieces within the gallery space are filled with bright colors, such as red and blue, on black background filled with golden dots that appear as stars. The colors create so much chaos in the galaxy but there are specific areas, such as the bright heavily saturated spots of color that allow the viewer to focus. After seeing a series of small 4”x 3” mounted paper on blocks, whose amount represents how old the artist’s mother was when she passed, the next piece to confront is a large non-figurative representation of a map, A Story beyond Me. This map allows one to figure out the rest of the journey from this point onward. This piece is based off of handwritten notes and highlighted routes of travel from maps of trips with her father. The final few pieces are again galaxy-like and represent the date of her mother’s death. Finally, the last piece is a single feather on a black chalky background. The pieces throughout the entire show act cohesively to tell one story, “…finding Zen in the chaos of loss…”

Jennifer Palmer, Mapping Above 20, 2017

The round mixed media on polyethylene pieces within the show are present at the beginning and the end as the viewer journeys through the chaos of the artist’s loss of a loved one. Both sets of the four round pieces have splotches of reds, blues, mixed colors, and dots that allow the colorful pieces to relate to the other more neutral and earth toned works in the rest of the show. In the beginning four round panels titled, Mapping Above, followed by a series of numbers that represent the artist’s mother’s birth date, bright colors such as red and yellow flow loosely and freely around the circle.

 There are very small gold dots that float around the freely flowing colors. These dots reference the other pieces but also draw attention to, A Story beyond Me, amidst all the chaos as if they are her father’s hand written notes from the journeys in which he mapped out the path of travel. Throughout Mapping Above, the artist draws your eye to other pieces around the room to connect the dots and lines just as we do in life. All of the connections made in life create so many lines and dots to piece together that they can easily be tangled. The loss of losing one of these lines can complicate life even further and creating these pieces allowed the artist to show the viewer how the act of creating and showing the loss of her mother allowed her to find peace in the chaos of life.

Jennifer Palmer, Mapping the Void II, 2017

This brings the journey to the final piece titled, Mapping the Void II. In this piece, there is one feather amidst a dark charcoal background full of wispy lines that show the artist’s hand. This single feather within the void of darkness creates a final sense of peace and tranquility after all the chaos. This is the only piece within the show that has one subject of interest to focus on. The single feather shows not only the calmness now felt after the chaos of losing someone, but also the emptiness that the artist may feel. The works as a whole create a journey through life and digs into what someone may feel when losing someone. It not only allows people to find their own Zen in the chaos, but also allows them to experience the artist’s own journey through grief. As a whole the show communicates this message perfectly and allows the viewer to connect not only with the works, but with the artist herself.