For this new work, the artist incorporates her unique masking tape and graphite technique to create an impressive drawing mounted to the 80 foot long facade windows. As reflected in the title Pantheon Wave, the work originates from Jennifer Mannebach‘s observation of, and fascination with the formal similarities between historic architecture and the structural fluidity of waves. Pantheon Wave continues Mannebach’s additive process in making her most recent body of work, which explores the places where things collect, both literally and figuratively. The surface of the work is composed from hundreds of pieces of tape, hand-torn and layered to build the image. Powdered graphite is dusted onto the folds of tape enhancing the perceived depth of the image while also emphasizing the overlap of material. Jennifer Mannebach’s work depicts familiar imagery of architecture taken from Hollywood movies and tourist destinations dissolving in thin air.
Scenes from Jaws (1975) and Becket (1964) represent the inherent suspension of disbelief the artist identifies as fundamental to the movie-going experience. Similarly, the religious architectural fragments present in the work signify the impotent or “leftover” faith resulting from convictions that no longer apply to the societies they aim to serve. By melding historic architecture with popular 20st Century cinema on the modern glass façade of the Art Center, Mannebach attempts to negotiate the complex relationship between past and present belief systems through architecture. Mannebach incorporates the glass facade of the Art Center as her canvas to secure her elaborate and subtle large scale installation. Drawings made in graphite on masking tape inspired by monastic Italian architecture reference impotent “leftover” faith in attempt to negotiate the relationship between past and present belief systems.
