White Room: Jennifer Cohen

A former George Balanchine-schooled dancer, Jennifer Cohen’s sculptural works and drawings explore the theatrical possibilities of formal, organic and chemical processes. In a number of recent works Cohen has explored archetypal motifs derived from Balanchine’s ballets – including the mythical phoenix – and the figure of the harlequin, which forms the basis of a number of the works in her White Room exhibition. Derived from the Comedia del Arte, character the harlequin acts as a charming but malevolent social catalyst. Cohen’s works – which often include an active chemical element – suggest a primitive form of alchemy, of the potential for transformation, and hark back to – in the words of the artist – “an era when metamorphosis, myth, nature and mark-making all belonged in the same social arena. In this spirit, my work follows the logic of a loose allegorical experiment.”