About Jeremy
Jeremy Stern is a conceptual artist exploring mapping and distortions in information through objects, audio, video and installations that often play with viewer perception and interaction. His most recent work uses humanity’s oldest common map, the celestial sphere, as inspiration for large-scale paper works, and window-based cutouts that utilize both natural and artificial light to change the environment. These cutouts conjoin the varied experiences of visitors through both the changing… more
Jump to a project:
Chauvet Cubicle
Push pins and tacks recreating imagery found in the Chauvet Cave, installed in the Assistant to the Director's cubicle in the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The piece was donated to the museum on the condition that it only be removed by the person who worked at that desk, thus recreating through natural use the disintegration of artwork that is also taking place in the caves in France.
Trimmed Fat
A slightly larger-than-life-sized cow made out of art world ephemera and staples. There was no internal structure - it was completely held together by the placement of postcards and staples. Its exterior featured all of the information and text, while the interior was filled with images. It was possible to see inside of it, but not to enter it.
This piece was exhibited in the exhibition "Podium Results Show" at the University of Nevada, Reno while its sister piece, "Burrow" was exhibited at the GASA House exhibition "Post 'Podium Results Show' Show", also in Reno (see separate entry)
This piece was exhibited in the exhibition "Podium Results Show" at the University of Nevada, Reno while its sister piece, "Burrow" was exhibited at the GASA House exhibition "Post 'Podium Results Show' Show", also in Reno (see separate entry)
Burrow
A tunnel constructed in the basement of the Graduate Arts Students Association (GASA) House, near the University of Nevada, Reno on the occasion of the "Post 'Podium Results Show' Show." Constructed of art world ephemera staples and chicken wire, this tunnel forces people to crawl through a paper space that gets increasingly smaller as it goes backwards. With all images on the inside and all textual information on the outside, it is a sister piece to "Trimmed Fat," (see separate entry) on view in another exhibition at that same time.
-
BurrowThis rough video attempts to guide you through the experience of moving in the tunnel.
-
burrow172dpi.jpg
-
BurrowA tunnel made in the basement of the Graduate Arts Students Association (GASA) house at the University of Nevada Reno, out of art world mailers. It is impossible to document in one shot, but the video in the is project attempts to guide you trough the claustrophobic experience.
Fed By The Past
Ephemera from the artist's life, 1978 - 2010, refrigerator, magnets. A refrigerator made into a commemoration of my life. Taking the personalization of an everyday object to an extreme. Many of the events are held together by magnets and string in the shape of the Orion constellation. Part of the exhibition "Reinventing History" at the GASA House, Reno, Nevada, curated by Jen Graham.
Colored Space
Cut maps, reversed. Light projecting through the holes of the map hits the white wall on which it is mounted, and bounces back the color from the reverse side of the map to show the color on the wall. As the quality of light changes in the space, the intensity of the colors seen changes.
-
The Lonliest Road (Has A Hidden Light)2009 (side view)
-
The Lonliest Road (Has A Hidden Light)2009
-
Color As A Possible Place VIII2009
-
Color As A Possible Place VII2009
-
Color As A Possible Place VI (detail)2009
-
Color As A Possible Place VI (detail)2009
-
Color As A Possible Place VI (detail)2009
-
Color As A Possible Place VI2009
A New USA
A Rand McNally road map of the United States, excised by hand with an Xacto knife and painted with white-out. The only color that remains on the map are the highways. This piece visually proposes (without re-naming) the reorganization of the United States by visible boundaries: its roads.
No Matter Matter Which Way We Turn (Structure Brings Us Together)
Maps cut by hand, suspended from the wall by tacks, nails, pins, and / or magnets. Information that has been removed allows for the assignment of new information by the viewer. Holes in the work suggest an idea of information that has yet to be discovered.
-
History Shovel2005 - Detail image. A 6' shovel covered in maps from all of the locations in which I had lived to that point: Chicago, Denver, Jacksonville, New York, Denver (again), and Omaha.
-
Mute Maps Invite New Experience 22008
-
Mute Maps Invite New Experience 52009
-
Mute Maps Invite New Experience 32009
-
Formerly (Central)2008
-
Drive By Flying (2008)lines representing distances as the crow flies between cities
-
The Melting Season (2010)
-
No Matter Matter Which Way We Turn (Structure Brings Us Together) IIIMaps cut by hand of Reno, Nevada and Baltimore, Maryland. The Reno map is suspended above the Baltimore County road map using high powered magnets, placed in the orientation of the constellation Libra. It is a meditation on the long-distance relationship that ultimately caused me to move from Reno to Baltimore.
-
History Shovel2005. A 6' shovel covered in maps from all of the locations in which I had lived to that point: Chicago, Denver, Jacksonville, New York, Denver (again), and Omaha.
-
Four Corners2011
In Concert
The second part of my 2011 thesis exhibition, "Following," at the University of Nevada, Reno - this interactive sound installation took place in the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery where "Constellated Space" took place. It transposed the ceramic tile grid of the gallery floor onto a Rand-McNally road map of the greater Reno Area. Traveling out to sections of this transposed grid, I took whatever sound recordings I could manage to gather from throughout the entire map over the course of 3 - 4 months. Using the gallery's security cameras in conjunction with a theater sound production program called EyeCon, and an 8-channel speaker output, I was able to place the recorded sounds of the mapped environment in the based on the transposed grid. As visitors to the space traversed the grid, the sounds of the larger world would play back at them and mix as they walked around the space. Moving slowly and paying attention to one's actions became the only way to hear all of the delicately placed sounds.
A second system, co-developed by Steve Struebing, used Arduino-controlled PIR sensors and sounds of either traffic or the Truckee River to track people's movement. The more movement there was in the gallery, the more traffic sounds increased and water sounds decreased. Less movement created the opposite effect.
A second system, co-developed by Steve Struebing, used Arduino-controlled PIR sensors and sounds of either traffic or the Truckee River to track people's movement. The more movement there was in the gallery, the more traffic sounds increased and water sounds decreased. Less movement created the opposite effect.
-
In Concert2011 - This 6 minute video attempts to document the audio changes that took place in the Sheppard Fine Art Gallery during the "Following" exhibition.
-
In ConcertDetail view of the EyeCon setup behind the gallery's front desk. Four computers used web cams to observe the gallery's 8-channel security monitoring system. Each computer used it's stereo output to feed pre-recorded wav files to a set of speakers set over a corresponding part of the grid on the floor. 8-Channel sound was created throughout the gallery overall.
-
In ConcertDetail view of the opening for "Following." With this many people in the room the audio component was fully active and raucous. Every person's movement and every person's shadow triggered an effect in the EyeCon system. There was a palpable sense of the installation fighting against the crowd by becoming louder as the crowd increased.
-
In ConcertDetail view of the Rand McNally road map of Reno that I used to map out the EyeCon sounds. The grid placed over the map is a to-scale reproduction of the ceramic tile layout nacent to the Sheppard Fine Art Gallery's floor.
Constellated Space
As one part of my 2011 thesis exhibition at the University of Nevada, Reno, I gathered volunteers to help me outline in "Deep Space" blue all of the visible errors in the surface of the gallery's walls. The remaining space was filled in to create a constellation of the gallery's exhibition history as visible through the "mistakes" in wall repair. 12 walls spread out over 3 different gallery spaces were detailed in this fashion, highlighting the various activities of over 50 years of exhibition history. Over 80 students volunteered to help identify marks in this process.
-
Constellated Space2011 - detail view of the Walter McNamara Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno
-
Painting "Constellated Space" (3 days, 1533 minutes)
-
Constellated Space2011 - detail view of the Front Door Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno. This space was first location of the Sheppard Fine Art Gallery.
-
Constellated Space2011 - detail view, Front Door Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno.
-
Constellated Space2011 - Detail view of the Sheppard Fine Art Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno. East and South walls. The door shape that is highlighted is a gallery access door built into the wall that leads to a second floor drop-off into the sculpture lab. Installed 25 years ago, this door has never been opened.
-
Constellated Space2011 - Detail view, Sheppard Fine Art Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno (West wall).
-
Constellated Space2011 - Detail view, Sheppard Fine Art Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno (North wall).
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion
A two-story tall cut paper piece made for the Creative Alliance's exterior window. This piece was my contribution to the resident artist group exhibition "Subterfuge" that coincided with the annual Open Studios event. It represents four different views of the night sky projected onto sections of the paper with the information cut out (representations of various stars, their names, and the constellations they help to form). The work plays with distortions in information. How we view the night sky that used to be humanity's oldest and most consistent map, and now is highly abstracted due to the nighttime night sky pollution. It achieves this by projecting sunlight into the building during the day and communicating an eternal artificial light during the night using the Creative Alliance's own lighting systems. During daytime hours, especially the morning, the piece communicates different looks depending on when you see it.
-
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion2012 - detail view, Creative Alliance lower lobby
-
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion2012 - from the ARG at Creative Alliance, 2nd floor with the Subterfuge show title in the foreground
-
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion2012 - Creative Alliance lobby detail view
-
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion2012 - night time view from the inside, on the staircase between the first & second floors
-
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion2012 - view from East Avenue, sunset
-
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion2012 - detail from the second floor looking down to the first floor lobby
-
Extraterrestrial Echnidrion2012 - detail view, daytime