Volcano by Jenn Sova
Cascade Paragon Arts Gallery
Curated with Jodi Darby.
“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
- Exhibition dates: October 4 – November 4, 2023
- Gallery Opening Event: Thursday, October 5, 2023, 4-8pm
- “Volcano: a reading event,” Thursday, November 2, 5-8pm, reading starts at 6:30pm
- Gallery hours:
- Wednesdays – Fridays, 12-7pm, Saturdays, 12-5pm
- 24/7 view at 815 N. Killingsworth, Portland, OR 97217
- All events are free and open to the public.
*care offering: this exhibition references gendered violence*
Volcano is an installation-based exhibition of new works by Jenn Sova curated with Jodi Darby. It is an exploration of rage; a geological survey of destruction at the hands of patriarchal violence. Sova weaves connections between organic materials such as moss, ash, rocks, and flowers with research and archival media depictions of violence and survival. Her research centers four women: Ana Mendieta, Aileen Wuornos, Anita Hill, and Joan of Arc. These women lived in different times, but all share the experience of their lives being destroyed by gendered violence, capitalism, and white supremacy. The title, Volcano, comes from both the Ursula K. Le Guin quote cited here and from artist Ana Mendieta’s notebooks in which she was dreaming about new work she would make, “Do it with a size 5 feet…Do it outside…Do a volcano…Document over a long period of time the eruption of the figure…Make a figure so that it shines like when water runs down a mountainside.” This exhibition serves as a memorial, a meditation, and an invitation to change the maps.
Cuban-American performance artist and sculptor Ana Mendieta confronted themes of rape, power, extraction, and the body through her work. She was murdered by her husband, the artist Carl Andre, at age thirty-six.
Aileen Wuornos’ life was filled with violence, neglect, abuse, rape and incest. She murdered seven men in self-defense, and is known as America’s first female serial killer. She was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in 2002.
American lawyer and educator Anita Hill made accusations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas during the 1991 Senate hearings pending his confirmation to the US Supreme Court. Thomas won the vote and currently serves as a justice.
Joan of Arc was a French peasant, military leader, and patron saint. She defied the roles of girls/women at the time as an unwed virgin that had divine visions and altered her appearance to wield a sword to lead an army. She was captured by the English and imprisoned, tortured, raped, and tried for wearing men’s clothing, practicing witchcraft, heresy, and turning against the Catholic church. She was burned at the stake in 1431, when she was nineteen years old.
About the artist
Jenn Sova’s (she/they) queer feminist practice is an act of resistance and healing. She collects, arranges, asks, and asks again, as a way to make sense of and reimagine the world. Through these gestures, she begins to find or construct connections that are often overlooked. The tracings of these connections manifest through still and moving images, writing, sculpture, installation, and performance; often blurring the boundaries of each. No matter the medium, the goal is to create space for pause, for looking, for questioning, for attention, and for response.
Sova has exhibited and screened works nationally and internationally and Volcano marks her third solo exhibition. Sova holds a BA in Photography and Gender Studies from Columbia College Chicago and is a proud graduate school dropout. In 2016 she founded The Overlook, a nomadic arts project to support BIPOC, Femme, and Queer makers and thinkers through residencies, exhibitions, and public programming. Sova’s recent projects include curating Too Long; Didn’t Read, a group exhibition at Heaven Gallery (Chicago) and LULL, a two-person exhibition at 1122 Outside (Portland).
- www.sova.works
- @jennsova
- #volcanoexhibition
About the curator
Jodi Darby (she/her) is a media artist, activist, and educator specializing in experimental video and photography. Her work reflects an interest in re-purposing history, mapping the changing North American landscape, and finding beauty in that which has been discarded and abandoned. She seeks to amplify stories that often go unheard while pushing back at the narratives of dominant culture. Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally and her documentary Arresting Power-Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon has been the recipient of multiple national film awards.
Darby has directed programming and created multimedia curriculum for students at Portland State University, Portland Youthbuilders, Open Signal, Metro East Community Media, Open School East, Portland Public Schools, the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), Outside the Frame, and many others. She currently teaches in the Video + Sound department at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
- jodidarby.com
- @jodidarby
About Paragon Arts Gallery
Paragon Arts Gallery is an educational showcase committed to exhibiting work of high artistic quality. Our versatile gallery is located at 815 North Killingsworth, at PCC’s Cascade Campus. Mindful of our role as a member of the Humboldt community, we are especially committed to engaging community members in our space.