Jacqueline Pennell at Museum van Nagsael (2002)
artdesigncafé | café library | Published 4 October 2011
This interview was previously published in World Sculpture News, 8(3), 37-9 in 2002 with the title "Luck of the dice".
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Double sixes will do it. With the (un)lucky roll of the dice triggering an endless hall of mirrors with multiplying entrances and exits, Jacqueline Pennell’s Aleatoric (2002) responds to Hieronymus Bosch’s 16th-century depiction of "Hell". [1] Conceived specifically for the three-part intervention, A Triptych across Time: Artists Respond to Bosch’s “Garden of Delights” [* Eden * Hell * Garden of Delights] at Rotterdam’s Museum van Nagsael (MvN), a miniature replica of a museum built to scale (1:15), Pennell’s installation "suggests the uncertainty that endless chance events can induce, and the certainty that the future will be no different." Jacqueline Pennell’s contribution, the second installation of the three, contained within a two-sided, glass-covered display window. [2] The site and project were chosen in response to Museum van Nagsael’s miniature size as "the world’s smallest museum" in relation to Bosch’s work— his usage of scale, distortion, and depiction of world order. At MvN, two viewpoints are offered: facing the street at eye level, and also through a fish-eye peephole fitted into the side of the cabinet offering a closer and distorted view of the artwork. With this installation, Pennell addressed the site and the project, resulting in an interplay among the miniature, infinity, and chance events— with a minimal manipulation of reflective material. Based in London, Jacqueline Pennell has created several mirrored interventions placed in unusual areas— underneath sofas, in fireplace hearths, discreet garden locations, and underground passageways. Her works playfully distort and expose these previously "hidden areas". Pennell has exhibited work in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, and in other parts of the United Kingdom. In addition to her practice, she is a lecturer in fine art at Goldsmiths College, University of London. R.J. Preece, who organized the project, interviewed Pennell to discuss the connections, abstractions, and contexts. R.J. Preece: When the project was formed, you seemed pleased to be offered "Hell". Why is that? Jacqueline Pennell: I find Hell more intriguing since it represents our fears, and I feel these are directly related to constructing our desires. I also thought that there would be a broader scope for exploring and interpreting psycho-dynamics. As I have a musical background, the musicians in Bosch’s panel appealed to me— the unpredictable improvisation— as well as other elements: the gamblers, the addictions, and the darkness of the hell fire. R.J. Preece: Could you explain the conceptual and visual development you undertook when designing the Museum van Nagsael intervention? |
Jacqueline Pennell: I wanted to expand this miniature space beyond its physical boundaries, and to create an installation which you can’t actually enter but draws you into a spatial and conceptual experience. To enable Aleatoric to provide a means for the viewer to explore their idea of Hell, through their own experiences, thereby bringing the installation into the real world again. This begins to merge with the territory of illusion and thereby back to the Garden of Delights and Bosch.
Jacqueline Pennell at Museum van Nagsael: 1 | 2 | 3
Notes:
[1] Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Delights, c. 1510-15, oil on panel. Museo del Prado, Madrid. See standard art history survey books for illustrations.
[2] The third part of the intervention continues in August 2002 with London-based artist Jeremy Wood addressing Bosch’s central panel, ["Paradise"]. In April 2002, Susan Morris addressed the first part of the triptych "Eden" with her video installation Between Two Deaths (1998-2001), a bleached-out, black-and-white line drawing moving up and down across the screen, which reveals itself as a cropped detail of two bodies in the act of making love. (Click to read more about the project).
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