TERRI JONES
Drawing a Line from 1993 - 2004
June 4 - August 1, 2004
Following the success of Wade Guyton and Bruce Nauman, this is the third solo exhibition at Power House in 2004. It is a retrospective of the artist's Memphis work, and will include new site-specific installations. As evident in her earlier work, Terri Jones makes tiny pencil drawings, so it is an exciting prospect to see how she will engage the spaces of this landmark building in downtown Memphis.
Terri Jones studio is five minutes away from Power House and she has been making new work for the last year in preparation for her solo exhibition that opens on June 4, 2004. Terri Jones ‘Drawing a Line from 1993 - 2004’ is currently a work in progress that includes three elements: Firstly a digital slide show of a documentary selection of Terri Jones drawings and archive photographs of previous installations; secondly a selection of the actual vintage works made in Memphis during the last ten years; and thirdly a new series of works made especially for the Power House Memphis.
On entering the space the first work is a neon horseshoe - a metaphor for taking Paul Klee’s line for a walk in Memphis from 1993 to 2004. Terri Jones lives within a mile from Power House and is exhibiting works from 1993 upstairs in North Gallery and introducing new works downstairs. In the South Gallery using a red compound material Terri Jones says “I piled it on the window ledges and loved the line it made at the base of the windows and horizontally around the entire space. I plan to fill every window ledge. A wonderful dynamic in the tall light-filled gallery. This then leads to an eerie and laboratory-like dark setting for a new piece in the Petroleum Gallery, with plant lamps hanging above a vitrine filled with soil and seedlings.”
Terri Jones is making lines active that are heat generated, from a drawing with flowers to melting red wax. It is germinal work. Like the emotionally charged poetic artwork of Louise Bourgeois and Yoko Ono or the German art martyrs Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys tracing history, Terri Jones organic work is life-enhancing. Using pliant materials like red zinnia flower seeds and red wax Terri Jones is drawing lines as a way of thinking about life. In her exhibition the new works are made of cast red glass, copper and red molten wax - that forms a line that pierces the small gallery at the bottom of the stairs. The combination of shiny copper and fluid wax is quite striking, especially in that damp, dark space. Other artists that Terri Jones admires are Roni Horn, Richard Tuttle, Wolfgang Laib - artists who also transform spaces.
As Joseph Beuys said the art that he admires poses the question: “Does it echo the past, or mirror the future?”
For this exhibition it is exciting to sense that she is using the color red as a sense of the history of the building to generate power for Central Station on South Main Street. Terri Jones has responded to the invitation to regenerate Power House Memphis by using the color red - and this is also celebrated with an artist T-Shirt that is on sale for $5.
Exhibition is also made possible by Memphis City Beautiful Commission.
Terri Jones lives and works in Memphis and is represented by David Lusk Gallery, Memphis.