Jennie Thwing
2020

October 2020
Opens Friday, October 2. Runs through November 29, 2020.
Gallery hours: By Appointment Only. Email: 2xGrizzly@gmail.com
Press contact: Maggie Mills, Millssuperstar@gmail.com

This October, Grizzly Grizzly is pleased to present 2020, a solo exhibition of new work by Queens based artist, Jennie Thwing. Thwing’s animation and gallery installation made from cut felt are a response to the extraordinary turmoil of this pivotal year in the United States.

Thwing’s personal perspective on the Trump era, Black Lives Matter, the pandemic, and the twenty-four-hour news stream become a rhythmic mantra in her animation. The chaotic simultaneity of current events and Thwing’s internal conflict is set to a soundtrack that is both catchy and unsettling. In 2020, our collective trauma and grief is balanced with moments of hope. Thwing uses the body’s position and proximity to other bodies as a gauge of emotional states: the anxiety of oppression, solidarity of protest, sadness of solitary illness, callousness of the news cycle, and quietness of communing with nature.

Thwing has been making video and installation for fifteen years. After the birth of her now four-year-old son, Thwing gave up her studio and began making a 3 to 10 second animation per day as a record of her memories and fears. Her animations are a mix of cel animation and cut paper and felt. Thwing uses her tactile materials to make sculptural installations that mirror the animation’s theme and visuals. 2020 is one of three animations made through this process.

Thwing and her family left Queens during the height of the pandemic in New York City to stay on a family member’s rural Massachusetts property. She has been working on 2020 from an improvised studio there.

Please practice COVID safety.
Wear a mask and socially distance in the 319 building.

2020 programming is supported by Added Velocity which is administered by Temple Contemporary at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University and funded by the William Penn Foundation.