Baker Artist Portfolios

Jennifer L Avery  (Vinegar) is a scholar,  a curator, a sculptor, and the artistic director of The Ergot Players .  Vinegar was the first American to become an Artist in Residence for the Hermès Foundation in France. They are married to the painter James Allen Swainbank.

http://en.fondationdentreprisehermes.org/

They cut their teeth in the alt/cabaret movement of the most recent fin et debut de siècle ,  received thier Associates degree in Fine Art from Bristol Community College and thier Bachelors Degree from Brown Univeristy.

Vinegar is represented by Yellow Peril Gallery.

Wolves holding tea parties in the forest that end in Bacchanalian orgies (“Could I warm up your cup of lamb’s blood?”) Filthy children dressed in silk and cashmere snipping thread to the rhythm of vile, throbbing machines (they, of course are fed on nothing but treacle and dirt cake) Sacred dance rituals actually performed by the gold foiled bone exposed relics (held in place with jewel-toned thread, scraps of trash and bubble gum) Velvet salon conversations by rotting pieces of wood with monocles and spats (“I say old chap that witches butter fungus on your clavicle is delightful”!) Perfectly preserved little corpses draped in finery being dragged around in a mahogany slay for endless photography sessions( no thank you, no anesthetics, smile pretty!)

Perhaps more than anything else I am interested in empathy. I like to feel haptically, corporeally and emotionally. I have found the experiences of opposites aids this experience.

 Absurdities, contradictions, opposites, amuse and frighten me-things whimsical and macabre/ glamorous and rotten/ strong and vulnerable / natural and artificial/ grotesque and ordinary/ erotic and innocent: strict Victorian decorum and ferocious punk rock dances. 

I like things in the uncanny realm of attraction and repulsion. I am often navigating concerns of mental health.

Much of my work takes on the aspects of childhood and fairy tale through the lenses of a cherished nightmare and personal identity.  I am fond of coloring books, playing dress-up, magical animals and dolls.   I am often seduced by research of feminine domestic practices from bobbin lace weaving to spinning fibers to preparing desserts.

My work is a very personal response to the problematic erotics of a female aesthetic, and thus both a celebration and condemnation of socially constructed performances of gender and femininity.

Certainly more than anything else I am interested in empathy.


https://vimeo.com/user37695917