Jean Blackburn

Bind was installed in 2021 as part of the group show “Splitting the Rent” at the Jay Taylor Gallery in Providence, R.I. Cords interconnecting the fabric elements were tightened to distribute tension throughout the installation. These were anchored by the chair and dresser. Sited in a former warehouse space, the residual architecture created an interesting tension with Bind’s domestic elements.

Feed is constructed in 2018 from 13 tables that are stacked or attached to each other in various ways.  Some lean on others. Some slide together.  Others pierce holes.  Material is cut from the tables and milled into strips that are used to create a rectilinear meander that penetrates but unites the tables.  Suggestive of rooms, architecture, diagrams, hierarchies and relationships this meander creates a weave of interconnections and dependencies.

  Created in 2017, Warp utilizes fabric elements from bed sheets, curtains, tablecloths, napkins, etc. that weave through the entire installation of various domestic furnishings. The cross-lacing warp and weft bring individual parts into tension, producing a mesh of interdependencies and connections.  Other objects mutate, are reused, or devolve.  Wood from a dresser’s drawers becomes a latticed doorframe and a pile of sawdust.

Wooden material removed from various pieces of furniture (including a piano, many chairs, a bureau and a door) were ground into sawdust.  Some objects were completely ground down, while others retained their framework and identity.  The resulting sawdust was placed as a dune in the midst of the remains.

Before the Aldrich Museum undertook a major renovation project, I was invited to create an installation addressing the floor in one of their galleries.  Because the building was historic and at one time a house, I chose to cut the flooring to reveal its infrastructure and create a sense of fragility.  Material removed from the floor was stacked, glued and turned on a lathe to create various vessel forms, including plates, bowls, a vase and an urn.

Mix was made from five bed frames, each painted a different color.  Installed, it creates a meander of constructions, linkages, and interpenetrating materials that wryly contemplate the bed as a site of birth, death, dreams, sex and sleep.