Exiled Parts
Jennifer Sullivan
“Exiled Parts” refers to the parts of the psyche we deem unacceptable—the realm of so-called negative emotions. The phrase also announces my return to using source material, in this case, stills taken from horror films. The horror genre is an imaginary where women’s roles are allowed to drastically diverge: women in horror may be victims, final girls, or monstrously empowered. These women are often the subject of the genre’s motif of transformation, like in Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976), which relates the story of a timid high school girl, who, upon having her first period, discovers her telekinetic powers, which eventually consume her peers, her mother, and herself.
Filmic depictions of horror mirror the fearful and fictitious projections of our minds. Horror is a way to inhabit and amplify the different roles and archetypes with which I have sometimes identified. I still paint from the vantage point of a video and performance artist, so my paintings use affective information like specific body languages, facial expressions, and costuming details to show stories. I find painting to be akin to method acting; I draw on charged emotional memories to give them form and figuration. In this way, the “parts” of the title can also refer to the various parts we play in our lives.
Beyond the appropriated film stills, Exiled Parts includes more directly autobiographical images—self-portraits in the form of mirror selfies. These paintings act as moments of self- reflection that prioritize the female gaze. By showing a woman as she is looking at herself, the painting becomes a looped psychoanalytic process for both the artist and the viewer, interrupting our dominant culture’s usual mode of gendered reception.
Biography
Jennifer Sullivan lives in New York and works in painting, video, and performance. Recent solo exhibitions include Stretch Marks at Real Estate Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY, (2018) and the soft animal of your body at Five Car Garage, Los Angeles, CA (2018). Sullivan has shown at Marinaro, Brennan and Griffin, Rod Barton, Marvin Gardens, Safe Gallery, Pablo’s Birthday, 247365, Klaus Von Nichtsaggend, and the deCordova Museum. Her awards include a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center, and residencies at the Lighthouse Works, Skowhegan, Ox-Bow, and Yaddo. Sullivan’s artwork has been reviewed in the NY Times, the Brooklyn Rail, Artforum, and Art Papers, and her videos are included in the Geisel Library collection at the University of California in San Diego. Sullivan is represented by Five Car Garage in Los Angeles, CA.
