Friday 22 May 2009, 19.00–20.30
Saturday 23 May 2009, 19.00–20.30
Skate the Sky
Wheels, Ink, Ho-Ho's & Melon and other films by Jennifer West
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Jennifer West
Nirvana Alchemy Film (16mm black & white film soaked in lithium mineral hot springs, pennyroyal tea, doused in mud, sopped in bleach, cherry antacid and laxatives - jumping by Finn West & Jwest) 2007 TRT: 2:51, courtesy Vilma Gold, London and Marc Foxx, Los Angeles |
Friday 22 May 2009, 19.00–20.30
Skate the Sky Melon Grab Film
Performance
Turbine Hall
Saturday 23 May 2009, 19.00–20.30
Wheels, Ink Ho-Ho's and Melon: Films by Jennifer West
Film screening
Starr Auditorium
Los Angeles-based artist Jennifer West will create a new film live in the gallery by uniting an unlikely mix of ink, film strips and skate-boarding. In this unique event, titled Skate the Sky Melon Grab Film, West will build on her previous experiments with everyday materials such as pepper spray or Axe body cologne used to physically manipulate celluloid. West will stage a performance in the Turbine Hall for which a team of skate-boarders will traverse paint and ink-covered film strips, their wheels scraping into the celluloid and marking their movements in complex and psychedelic patterns. This live event will be followed by a screening the next evening of the films created plus a selection of West’s earlier films.
West's practice is influenced by urban mythology, folklore and popular culture, combining common actions and materials to create fast paced, abstract, hypnotic films, which she never edits. The substances used to create the film are often revealed in the titles, such as the recent work Shoes on the Telephone Wire Axe Body Spray Patchouli Film – every aspect of her work consciously emphasises the physical and performative aspects in its creation.
UBS Openings is an exciting programme of events and activities which form part of the partnership between Tate Modern and UBS, a global financial services firm, over three years.
Tate Modern
Starr Auditorium
Free
Free
Jennifer West was born in Topanga Canyon, CA and lives and works in Los Angeles. West’s solo shows have been presented at MARC FOXX, Los Angeles, USA (2009); Vilma Gold, London, UK (2008); Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland (2008); Statements, Art Basel 39, Basel, Switzerland(2008); Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2007); and White Columns,New York, NY (2007). Her work will be featured in an exhibition on the influence of Nirvana’s music in art at the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA in 2010 and 3-P Plot, Point, Position at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011. West received her MFA from Art Center College of Design in 2004.
