What's Going On Here?
What's Going On Here?
Rowan University Art Gallery presents
November 8, 2021 - January 8, 2022
Through cast rubber sculptures, Silverthorne embraces her studio as a metaphor for abandonment, collapse, and entropy as it relates to the absurdity of social constructs and the misguided perceptions of stability and constancy. Her rubber crates, workshop dollies, lamps and light bulbs are imbued with cast rubber weeds, vines, and insects, becoming humorous, comedic versions of their authentic counterparts. They teeter and bob in their flimsy and clumsy form as if they are about to collapse from their own “weight.” In their unsteadiness something is “not quite right.” and we are compelled to wonder “what's going on?”
Silverthorne’s sculptures can be seen as excavations of the studio that has been neglected and haunted by the “vanished voices” of deceased artists, family, friends, and studio assistants. Natural forms such as dandelions, sunflowers, and insects contrast the remains of the studio that is both metaphorically and literally frozen in a state of collapse and decay. Searching through the rubble unearths lost artifacts, lost art forms, and brings to light what has been concealed or hidden in a state of deep storage. Today as we reflect on the work created between 2009 and 2021 it resonates with our current state of social isolation and displacement.
Listen to the artist talk about her work while viewing images of the exhibiton: Jeanne Silverthorne opening program talk.
Exhibition Catalogue
Looking at a Caterpillar, 2017
platinum silicone rubber, phosphorescent pigment
11.5 x 24 x 18 inches.
Earth, Globe, Caterpillar, Flies, Ants, Beetles, 2018
platinum silicone rubber, foam rubber, fluorescent pigment, wire
6 x 10 x 7 inches.
Self-Portrait as a Fly with Eyeglasses, 2017
platinum silicone rubber, wire, plastic
2.75 x 5 x 6 inches. Edition 3 of 3
Wile E. Coyote (with Breasts), Studio Floor, Overgrowth, 2020
platinum silicone rubber, phosphorescent pigment, wire
15 x 28 x 58 inches. Photo credit: Paul Kennedy
Double Dolly with Fly, 2021
platinum silicone rubber, wire
9.25 x 18 x 12 inches.
About the Artist
Silverthorne came of age as an artist when women sculptors frequently used Eva Hesse as inspiration and this was true for Silverthorne as well. Another major influence was the early sculpture of Ree Morton. Her work also aligns with the “handmade ready-mades” of Robert Gober and the pop exaggerations of Richard Artschwager, among others. In its quiet and poignancy, however, it serves as a counterpoint to the severity of male formalists such as Serra, Judd, and Andre.
Silverthorne received a BA and an MA from Temple University. Her one-person exhibitions include The McKee Gallery, New York, PS1, New York, the ICA Philadelphia, Phillips Collection, Washington D.C, Whitney Museum, New York, and The Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA. In 2017, she was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work is included in many major museum collections, including MoMA, New York; MFA Houston, SFMOMA, CA and the Whitney Museum in New York. Jeanne Silverthorne currently teaches at School of Visual Arts (SVA) New York and is represented by Marc Straus Gallery, NY and Shoshana Wayne Gallery, LA.
jeannesilverthorne.org/