A Layered Space: Outside (v.5)
Objects, architecture, and nature in and around her home inform Jennifer Arnold’s work. She translates close observation into photography, collage, and sculpture through a process-driven practice centered on a technique she developed called the Canvas Peel.
Beginning in 2007, Arnold’s photographic work led to the development of this photo-transfer process, in which an image’s pigment is suspended in varnish and released from its canvas support. Each subject—leaves, articles of clothing, or everyday objects—is photographed individually, printed on canvas, and then peeled away, resulting in a transparent, archival image-object. These pliable forms are arranged directly on the wall or attached to wire armatures, creating works that exist between image and sculpture, the real and the surreal.
Paper-thin and often double-sided, the Canvas Peel images resemble sheets of pliable plastic, transforming three-dimensional objects into floating, weightless forms. In large-scale installations, these elements come together to create immersive environments that viewers can move through—playful, disorienting spaces where familiar objects lose their expected volume and solidity.
A Layered Space: Outside (v.5) expands this approach by transforming plants and trees into elaborate, hybrid forms. Arnold combines real branches with Canvas Peel leaves and flowers from multiple species, alongside unexpected materials such as scraps from her Closet Series. Wedding dress satin, plaid, and denim are reimagined as foliage, collapsing distinctions between the natural and the domestic. Acting as a horticulturist of this strange landscape, Arnold aims to “almost overwhelm the viewer with a landscape totally twisted up—like elements our minds develop while we sleep, with blended memories and objects.”
Sometimes I want to just talk about plants.