GALLERY ONE: JENNIFER WHITTEN: vɜːˈbeɪ.tɪm: JULY 23 – AUGUST 9 2014

GALLERY ONE

Jennifer WHITTEN
vɜːˈbeɪ.tɪm

VERBATIM (vɜːˈbeɪtɪm) is a series of paintings by American artist, Jennifer
Whitten. Shaped by the resonance of traumatic experiences and verbal abuse, the
work is a perversion of personal childhood flashbacks.
Each grotesque mouth frames a phonetic syllable, and when strung together, they
decode injurious phrases that were said to the artist at some point or another.
Verbal abuse can yield everlasting effects and has the tendency to warp even the
most idealized memory into something sinister. While this work is deeply personal,
it makes a broader statement about the lingering effects of bullying and verbal
abuse on the psyche.
“The process of creating these works has been a cathartic experience—by using
my own mouth to frame the phrases, I feel like I’ve taken ownership of the words,
conquering them into submission.” The excruciatingly detailed approach to these
paintings is like a ritual, a necessary exorcism of memory.