Jill Downen is an American artist based in Kansas City.

Her art practice investigates the symbiotic relationship between sculpture, the human body and architecture where the exchanging forces and tensions of construction, deterioration, and restoration emerge as thematic possibilities. Downen believes that the body is the primary vehicle for understanding the world. Her immersive sculptural environments engage the senses and ways of knowing that are often private and experiential.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Jill Downen’s work is framed by conceptual inquiry, research, material processes, a visual-spatial language developed over 20 years and her gender non-conformity. She activates space with a sculptural approach using concrete, plaster, lumber, metal, gold leaf and lapis lazuli stone.  She generates work in a non-linear method, moving fluidly between drawing, sculpting, and model-making (both digital and physical) which culminate in site responsive installations.

Downen’s deep understanding of phenomenology, space, light and materiality informs the way that she sculpts the entire volume of a given space. A thematic metaphor in her work is the blue plumb line, a tool comprised of a weight on a string used by builders to erect walls in true vertical relation to a horizontal plane. The plumb line functions as a contemplative metaphor for truth, activating ways we perceive and understand objective facts and subjective truths.

ABOUT FRONTIER

The frontier, for me, is a middle-ground place to exist as a non-binary thinker in a world full of polarities. I began the residency with a desire to seek out the dynamic energies that activate the frontier as a conceptual space where everything is in motion.  I explored the idea of binary-pull, a linear tension between two boundaries, which is released to reveal unexpected forces, rendering them visible.

Writing, reading, drawing and research informed by conversations within the cohort led my intuitive work. I focused on the use of a chalk plumb lines to make several videos. My work blended with the explorations of collaborators Trisha Gupta and Nora Jacobs. Together, we explored ideas of circular motion to escape boundaries, neuro-diversity represented through brain imagery, and connectivity by combining still and moving imagery. Our creative process was documented with text and image in a pdf format. The residency encounters enriched my research through collaboration, resources and dialogue.