For Immediate Release
March 19, 2021

CLARK ART INSTITUTE PRESENTs Virtual Conversation with Artist Jennie C. Jones

Williamstown, Massachusetts—Artist Jennie C. Jones discusses her site-specific installation in the Clark’s Ground/work exhibition with Dr. Kimberly Juanita Brown, associate professor at Dartmouth College and author of The Repeating Body: Slavery's Visual Resonance in the Contemporary (Duke University Press), on Tuesday, March 23. This free program takes place over Zoom at 6 pm.

Ground/work, the Clark’s first outdoor exhibition, consists of newly commissioned site-responsive installations by six leading contemporary artists set throughout the woodland trails and open meadows of the distinctive 140-acre campus. Working outdoors for the first time, Jones uses both sonic and visual abstraction in a sculptural form that both responds to the landscape and acts as a physical extension of the Tadao Ando–designed Clark Center building. Her sculpture, These (Mournful) Shores, is a contemporary take on an Aeolian harp, whose strings are activated by the shifting winds and weather patterns on the Clark’s site. Influenced by two Winslow Homer paintings from the Clark’s permanent collection—Eastern Point and West Point, Prout’s Neck (both 1900)—Jones interprets these turbulent seascapes of the Atlantic Ocean to be also considered as portraits of the Middle Passage. 

This conversation is part of Dr. Brown's guest-curated CARE SYLLABUS module, “Black Elegies in Sight and Sound.” The CARE SYLLABUS is a justice-oriented public education and community resource featuring original text, visual media, recordings and virtual live events by activists, artists, and academics facilitated by MASS MoCA and MCLA. 

Jennie C. Jones’s (b. 1968, Cincinnati) work employs strategies of collage and assemblage in her ongoing project of translating sound into physical matter, and reframes the contributions of African Americans to include a modernist, minimalist vernacular. Her work is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., among others. Recent solo presentations include projects at The Arts Club of Chicago (2020), The Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut (2018); CAM Houston (2015); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2013); The Kitchen, New York (2011); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2011); and Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (2009). Jones lives and works in Hudson, New York. 

This talk will be broadcast live. Visit clarkart.edu/events to register. Registrants will receive an email with a private link to the webcast before the event. 

Ground/work is made possible by Denise Littlefield Sobel. Major support for Ground/work is provided by Karen and Robert Scott and Paul Neely. Additional funding is generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art; the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor; Maureen Fennessy Bousa and Edward P. Bousa; Amy and Charlie Scharf; Elizabeth Lee; MASS MoCA; Chrystina and James Parks; Howard M. Shapiro and Shirley Brandman; Joan and Jim Hunter; James and Barbara Moltz; and a gift in honor of Marilyn and Ron Walter. 

ABOUT THE CLARK

The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 275,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.  

The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. Free admission is available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For more information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.  

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