Approved: 01.08.2012

Jane Boyer

Artist, Curator, Lecturer / academic, Researcher, Writer

Archived
Approved: 01.08.2012

I’m exploring memory, response, and the imaginary because I wonder what it is to be in the world when we can see that history is no longer stable. I’m fascinated by repetition, especially when it involves memory and its traces. I work with the idea that we see with our memory, and our memories activate the objects we see. As such, we see more than the object in front of us. We see an imaginary image formed by fragments of remembered experiences that mingle with an elusive something within an object that attracts us. 

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    Artist Statement

    I’m exploring memory, response, and the imaginary because I wonder what it is to be in the world when we can see that history is no longer stable. I’m fascinated by repetition, especially when it involves memory and its traces. I work with the idea that we see with our memory, and our memories activate the objects we see. As such, we see more than the object in front of us. We see an imaginary image formed by fragments of remembered experiences that mingle with an elusive something within an object that attracts us. 

    I explore the way memory fuels the imagination to see. Currently, this process involves rephotographing old photographs with a macro lens on my iPhone camera. It is an intimate process involving combined touch and vision to capture an imaginary image from the original photograph. I’m looking deeply into obscure areas of these photographs to visualise that place where memory and image intersect. This creates a new imaginary scene that comes from the original but is not a reproduction of the original.

    Looking deeply to reframe tiny areas of a photograph creates new and ambiguous possibilities. We begin to see what we don’t see, and we begin to tell what can’t be told. The images I create suggest a narrative, but they never reveal what the story is exactly. Because any narrative can be given to these images, none can stick to them. They become free-floating fragments, like forgotten memories that continue to return to influence our actions.

    Memory in my work is not meant as a negation of history or a retelling of it, rather it is a way of measuring the recurrence of time. Memory here allows for the past to resurface in the present through the image. The resulting image is a combination of looking (seeing with memory) and the encounter (perceiving the object). Looking deeply in this project means visualising the place where memory and an image combine to create an imaginary scene.

    I am an artist-curator and academic researcher. i was recently awarded a PhD degree in Fine Art from Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. However, my route to PhD study has come from practice, not academia. In 2013-14 I was awarded an Arts Council England grant for curating This ‘Me’ of Mine, a travelling group exhibition exploring self in our digital age and how objects mediate emotion. This project led to my PhD, where these themes and the prevalence of repetition in my work has been developed into a philosophically based praxis. In 2017, my work was selected as part of Remise en forme at École Superieur des Beaux Arts in Nîmes, France. This project was in conjunction with the retrospective Supports/Surfaces at Carré d’Art Contemporary Art Museum of Nîmes, whose curators were involved in selecting work for Remise en forme. In 2018-19, I was accepted to a year-long research residency with The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK where I created a series of over 40 digitally altered images from photographs taken within the museum galleries. These images, which explore intuition and the fantasies that flash through the mind when looking, are realised as UV prints on bible paper, a transparent book, and a video that replicates the experience of reading the book. My latest work involves rephotographing a personal photographic collection, looking deeply to frame the invisible attraction of an image. My time is split between France and the UK.

    CV & Education

    CURRENT ROLES

    Associate Lecturer in Contextual Studies, Cambridge School of art, Anglia Ruskin University, 2020 to present.

    Doctoral Candidate, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, Submitted Aug 2020.

    Member of the Operations Board, StoryLab Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, 2018 to present

    Managing Editor, Ruskin Arts Publications, 2018 to present

    Independent Artist, Curator and Writer, 2010 to present 

     

    EDUCATION

    Fine Art PhD, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 2015 to 2020

    Independent Study in Art Practice, Theory & History, 1986 to 2010

    Private Painting Instruction, Gaela Erwin, Louisville, Kentucky, 2005

    San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California, 1985-86

    Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, AFA, 1981-84

     

    PROJECT MANAGEMENT

    Defending Creative Practice, Creative Practice Methods Workshop 4, StoryLab Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, co-project management 2019

    Making Creativity Pay, Creative Practice Methods Workshop 4, StoryLab Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, co-project management 2019

    Communicating Research, Creative Practice Methods Workshop 4, StoryLab Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, co-project management 2019

    Theorem 2016 – 2019, Annual PhD Research exhibition and symposium, editor of peer review book of research essays, Anglia Ruskin University, project management 2016 – 2019  

    Phantom – project management, curation, and exhibition, second case study for PhD, 2017

    This ‘Me’ of Mine, touring exhibition, symposium, artist talk series, and companion book, ACE funded, project management, 2013 – 2014 

     

    PRESENTATIONS/TALKS

    The Intertextual Resonance of Myth and the Dialectic Image, EARN International Conference, University of Leeds, conference presentation, 2019

    The New Dialectics of Seeing, Format19 International Photography Conference, University of Derby, conference presentation, 2019

    Exhibition as Matrix, Theorem, Anglia Ruskin University, conference presentation, 2017

    When Narrative goes Missing, Code: StoryLab, Anglia Ruskin University, conference presentation, 2017

    Phantom Symposium with Caron Freeborn – organiser, moderator, 2017

    The Simulacral Self: an autobiographical comparison, theory:practice, Anglia Ruskin University, conference presentation, 2016 

    Invisible Agitations, FARU, Anglia Ruskin University, Artist talk, 2016

    The Self-Position in Creative Arts Research, Sense|Experiment|Surprise|Understanding, Nottingham Trent University, conference presentation, 2016 

     

    SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

    The Expanded Mirror, Final exhibition for PhD, online at www.expandedmirror.online

    The Window Project – Winter Showreel, Art Language Location, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, 2019

    Citation Exhibition, EARN International conference, Project Space: School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at University of Leeds, 2019

    Cambridge Summer Open, Art at the Alison Richard Building, CRASSH, University of Cambridge, 2019

    The Archive and the Contested Landscape, part of The Festival of Ideas, Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge, 2018

    Take Me There, Heong Gallery, Downing College, University of Cambridge, hosted by Power and Vision: The Camera as Political Technology, CRASSH Research Group, 2018

    Remise en forme, l’Hôtel Rivet à l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes, in conjunction with the exhibition, Supports/Surfaces at Carré d’Art – Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, 2017

    Phantom, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge, 2017 

    A project space called ‘I’, ARTHOUSE1 Gallery, London, solo exhibition, first case study for PhD, 2015

    Seeing Beckett, International “Beckett in the Regions” conference, AHRC funded “Staging Beckett”/ Liverpool Irish Festival, collaborative research project between Universities of Chester, Reading, Liverpool John Moores, and the V&A Museum, 2014

    A5, Lubomirov-Easton Gallery at Art Athina, Athens Greece, 2014

     

    SELECTED CURATION

    Double Time, ARTHOUSE1 Gallery, London, UK, 2019

    lookback@now, ARTHOUSE1 Gallery, London, UK, 2018

    Infinity, Arthouse1 Gallery, London, UK, 2017

    Phantom, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge, 2017 

    Theorem, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge, 2016

    Grit, Arthouse1 Gallery, London, UK 2016

    Desire Path, ARTHOUSE1, London, 2015 Exhibition Design: Hephzibah Rendle-Short and Kate Palmer

    Recursive, No Format Gallery, London 2014

    This ‘Me’ of Mine, APT Gallery/Georges House Gallery/Kaleidoscope Gallery/Art School Gallery, Ipswich Museum, London/Folkestone/Sevenoaks/Ipswich, UK touring exhibition, 2013

     

    SELECTED GRANTS/AWARDS/COMMISSIONS/RESIDENCIES

    Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, residency, 2018-19

    University Arts Council Grant, Anglia Ruskin University, grant, 2017

    Private commission, USA, 2015

    Arts Council England, Grants for the Arts, grant, 2013

    HomeinOne.com, corporate sponsorship, 2013

    Visualplanet, corporate sponsorship, 2013

                                                                                                

    SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

    Boyer, J., 2020.The new dialectics of seeing. In: Mythologies, Identities and Territories of Photography: Forever//Now, ISBN: 9781527563391, pp. 2-10

    Boyer, J., co-editor, 2020. Flag>Enigma>Disruptor. In: Ways of Thinking. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9781912319022, pp. 21-30

    Boyer, J., ed., 2019. Theorem 2018. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9781912319008, 250p

    Boyer, J., 2019. Simulacra and the structure of the work of art. JAWS 5(1), pp. 65-78. ISSN: 20552823

    Boyer, J., ed., 2018. Contemporary Cambridge. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9780993146176, 136p

    Boyer, J., co-editor, 2018. The Ruskin Songbook. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9780993146169, 84p

    Boyer, J., ed., 2018. Constellations and Canons, In: Theorem 2017, Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9780993146152, pp. 73-83

     

     

    SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

    Noga, L., 2017, ‘Phantom at Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge’, peer review

    Minton, D., 2015, A project space called ‘I,’ a-n Reviews, Sept, found at: https://www.a-n.co.uk/reviews/a-project-space-called-i

    Golding, M., 2015, Jane Boyer: Experience as Collage, exhibition essay for A project space called ‘I’

    Sheerin, M., 2014, Repetition Ain’t What It Used to Be, Bad at Sports, Oct, found at: http://badatsports.com/2014/jane-boyer-repetition-aint-what-it-used-to-be/

    McNay, A., 2013, Review of This ‘Me’ of Mine at APT Gallery, Deptford, Art-Corpus, Mar, found at: http://art-corpus.blogspot.fr/2013/03/review-of-this-me-of-mine-at-apt.html

     

    Works held in private collections in the United States, United Kingdom, Cyprus, France and Italy