Thread Song
Self Portrait (Held), 2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
Thread Song is an exploration of the recurring themes in Jenna Westra’s work, the thread that connects projects and thought processes into a newly formed narrative, viewed from a broader perspective. The essence of the work is conveyed through the precise attention to time and space. The intentional arrangement of images, each revealing an additional layer of the unfolding story, deeply engages the viewer on an emotional level with the work. Moving from one room to another, turning around and looking back, perceiving images in both rooms simultaneously, invites reflection on the concept of time and the intention behind the presented series.
Thread Song is on view at Schwarz Contemporary in Berlin from June 7 to July 13, 2024. In this interview we speak with Jenna Westra, a New York-based artist, and Anne Schwarz, a Berlin-based gallery owner. We discuss the collaborative process and the formation of the concept for the exhibition. Jenna revisits the series Kayla 2018/2024 (2024) exploring a common thread of forming a relationship with the model, Kayla, and the connection to space. We speak about Self Portrait (Held) (2024) and Mirror Cleaning (2024) and the connection formed between the artist, the model, the camera and the viewer. Meaning emerges as the work develops, or in Jenna’s words, “I think about how the images are ‘talking’ to one another in the rooms and how combinations of images create meaning.”
Anne adds another dimension to the creation of Thread Song, Jenna Westra's third solo exhibition at Schwarz Contemporary. Anne walks us through the space sharing, “I really liked the idea of including a self-portrait in her third and current solo show with us, now hanging above the sofa in the first room. Jenna's self-portrait is observing the visitors from a different angle in a less implicit way.”
Exhibition Details:
June 7 – July 13, 2024
At Schwarz Contemporary
Sanderstraße 28, 12047 Berlin
Exhibited at Schwarz Contemporary by Anne Schwarz
‘Anne mentioned a ‘red thread’ running through the works. I thought that was a poetic and lyrical expression, and so I titled the show Thread Song’
Thread Song
Hi Jenna, congratulations on your new solo exhibition, Thread Song. We love the way your work is displayed at Schwarz Contemporary Berlin. This is your third exhibition in this space, following Mellow Drama (2021) and She’s Reading 1 (2019). What is special for you in your work with Anne Schwarz, the gallerist, and the way the theme and narrative are formed through this collaborative process?
Thank you! I’m so glad you were able to see it in person and meet Anne. Collaborative is the perfect word to describe our working relationship, as is necessary for the artist/gallerist dynamic. What’s special about working with Anne, in particular, is our close ongoing dialogue when making a show. Unlike some other gallerists I’ve worked with, she really engages and thinks about the works individually. It’s nice when people just think everything I’m doing is great, say yes to all of my ideas, but that’s not all very useful. Anne, on the other hand, often questions me, which ultimately yields stronger work and the best possible exhibition results. She pushes me to keep going, work harder, up until the last moments before shipping the prints. In the end, I’ve got way more photographs than could fit in the space, and some of those usually pop up elsewhere down the line, in another show or book. Once we’ve decided on a body of work, it becomes a puzzle to step back and sort out meanings and tendencies. In this case, Anne mentioned a ‘red thread’ running through the works. I thought that was a poetic and lyrical expression, and so I titled the show Thread Song. After taking a step back, I noticed this new show is more romantic and lyrical than past ones.
Legs / Mirror, 2015-2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
‘With Kayla she’s got a very special way of making subtly amused facial expressions, it’s like she’s staring herself down in the lens, or in this case, her past self is gazing at her present self.’
photo: def image, courtesy of SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
Mirror Hold, 2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
Kayla/Table Rotated, 2018-2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
Time and Space
Bending time and space shows as one of the themes through the series Kayla 2018/2024, in which the model interacts with her past self, her past experiences, and the images from 2018. Six years later, the model gets a chance to ‘go back in time’ and connect with who she was, changing the perception and interpretation of the viewer based on how she is today. What is the common thread that connects your practice six years ago and today, especially when looking back through this prism of time working with Kayla?
I’ve been working in the same studio space since 2018 and have done numerous photo shoots there over the past six years. The studio almost becomes a character in the work. It’s a safe space that’s just for me and my collaborators to make art together, with no outside eyes or judgment. I usually start by keeping a notebook of images I want to make, and once I’ve got this ‘shot list/playlist’ built up to about ten or so motifs, I’ll invite one, two, or three people to come over and act them out. I usually work with the same models over a period of time, we develop a relationship that’s unique to each of us. Each person brings their own strengths. With Kayla she’s got a very special way of making subtly amused facial expressions, it’s like she’s staring herself down in the lens, or in this case, her past self is gazing at her present self. She is also quite statuesque and naturalistic, with a contrapposto way of standing. I don’t usually have to give her too much direction other than giving her objects or furniture to pose with, or in the case of the series we’re talking about, life scale printed backdrops of her from 2018. She was definitely amused when she saw all these huge images of her past self in the studio. So I suppose the common thread is these relationships and how they evolve and change over time along with the pictures.
Kayla 2018/2024 (1), 2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
Kayla 2018/2024 (2), 2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
‘I wasn’t planning to be in the image I had in mind for the self-portrait, but one of the models had to cancel last minute and I really wanted to make this image, so I stood in.’
Mirror Cleaning, 2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
photo: def image, courtesy of SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
The Mirror
The mirror that sends back your reflection in Self Portrait (Held) or Mirror Cleaning creates a dialogue with the space of the gallery when the viewer can form connections between different layers by looking through the passage and seeing the images in both rooms simultaneously. The poses, body movement, the gaze and the absence of it, the connection between the model and the artist create those emotional layers that play a role in reading the image. How do you work with models to ensure that it allows you to create layers of meaning in your work in the process that follows?
The layering of meaning isn’t all that intentional or planned at the outset before making an exposure. I just know it will eventually come through. These things again come into focus while planning the installation. I think about how the images are ‘talking’ to one another in the rooms and how combinations of images create meaning. In this case, you found this in the arrangement of the two images where I’m picturing a mirror, they speak to one another and frame one’s way of looking. A mirror has the innate quality of creating doubles and layers, which is why I like to use it. I wasn’t planning to be in the image I had in mind for the self-portrait, but one of the models had to cancel last minute and I really wanted to make this image, so I stood in. This happens often in my work, where I’ll have one image in mind, then life happens and things change, so the pictures do too. That’s one aspect of photography that keeps me interested: the element of surprise and delight.
Candle Picture (3), 2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
Dance with Plant, 2022-2024
courtesy the artist and SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
‘We met in Mallorca, where Jenna was working in a residency and where she also did a lot of outdoor shooting with women living on the island — I was flashed by her body of work.’
Schwarz Contemporary
Hi Anne, it was very nice to meet you and speak in the gallery about Jenna Westra's new solo exhibition. Could you tell a bit about how you started the gallery more than a decade ago and the way you decided to display Thread Song working with the space to create a compelling visual experience?
I inaugurated my gallery SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY in 2011 with a solo show by Brooklyn-based painter Eddie Martinez. Eight years later, we hosted Jenna Westra’s first solo show at the gallery entitled She’s Reading 1. It was our second collaboration with an artist from the US, also based in Brooklyn, NY. Johanna Jaeger wrote an excellent text on Jenna’s work at the time. She was actually the one — as one of our represented artists — who introduced us to Jenna's work; the two women artists had studied together at Hunter College in New York and became friends. After having been introduced to Jenna by Johanna, we met in Mallorca, where Jenna was working in a residency and where she also did a lot of outdoor shooting with women living on the island — I was flashed by her body of work she had put together, and we decided that we would properly work together and planned her first solo show for September 2019.
I still vividly remember how the Berlin public and our circle of enthusiasts and collectors reacted in 2019: they were amazed by the 'new' American photographer in our program, how Jenna undermined the typical power dynamic between her (the person behind the camera) and her models being photographed. As Johanna put it in her text, 'by positioning the camera at unexpected immersive angles, by presenting a female gaze on female action.'
In 2019, a female German collector decided to buy seven works from Jenna’s first solo show and still has these works on display in her flat in Berlin: she was convinced by the way we had installed the works together with Jenna and wanted to buy all the works from the exhibition! We were super happy and proud back then because we had won the VBKI award for newcomer galleries in 2019 as a gallery, and Jenna’s show and her work were enthusiastically received and reviewed here in Berlin.
Her second show entitled Mellow Drama was, again, a solo show that was brilliantly put together by her — unfortunately, Jenna was not able to come to Berlin at the time because we were, due to the pandemic, not allowed to do a proper opening and traveling opportunities were very limited. You might know Jenna’s work Self Portrait with Melon (2021) (take a look at it here, it’s the first work on the website of Mellow Drama): this work was hanging in the entrance area of the gallery in her second solo show and the visitors immediately encountered Jenna even though she wasn’t present for Mellow Drama in person.
photo: def image, courtesy of SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY
I really liked the idea of including a self-portrait in her third and current solo show with us, now hanging above the sofa in the first room. Jenna's self-portrait is observing the visitors from a different angle in a less implicit way. Jenna had built a mockup of the gallery and had positioned all the works for the current show before we actually installed it at the beginning of June. What I particularly like about the hanging is that you go through the first two rooms of the gallery, encounter different images that do not belong to a series, and then, the three large works, Slide Projector Stage 1-3 (2024), on the long gallery wall. You do not clearly see a face, but you notice a woman in the three black and white photographs, (doubled) shadows, a bending back, legs, and a silvery piece of fabric. One might think they are looking at a stage or a backstage theater scene. It’s a mysterious setting, appealing, you immediately engage with it, and it is, at the same time, difficult to really grasp. And THEN, coming to the next room and turning around, you see the work Mirror Cleaning (I love the title), a woman looking at herself in a mirror. We see her face now and understand that she is the same person as the one in the series Slide Projector Stage(because she is wearing that very particular black body with a round 'aperture' on her back). You can now see all four works together, and it is as if the woman is reflecting in Mirror Cleaning on what was going on in the three large works.
I am a big fan of the exhibited series Kayla 2018/2024, where the printed backdrops were made in 2018 and then, six years later, used again for another photo session. As written in our text, “In bending and entangling poses, the model (Kayla) engages with an image of her younger self. Narrative requires time: we see Kayla and Westra interacting with their own past experiences and selves. As viewers, we reflect on possibilities for interaction with our own memories, in relation to our present state.”
