Jennifer West (born 1966) is an American artist. She is known for her digitized films that are made by hand manipulating film celluloid. She serves as faculty at the University of Southern California (USC) at the Roski School of Art and Design. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
Wendy Vogel writes for Artforum.com, "Like her experimental predecessors, West forgoes narrative cohesion in favor of creating jumpy cuts and abstract visual collages––splicing, rolling, and drenching the celluloid using materials from Mylar tape to pickle juice, whiskey to candle smoke." Christopher Bedford wrote in Artforum on her work, "sexy, whimsical, painting-scale DVD projections walk that elusive line between pictorial modes with deftness, wit, and airy originality." Joanna Kleinberg wrote on her work in Frieze "the intermingling of materiality, feeling and identity creates a wild blend of synaesthetic experience wherein the substances of life literally and figuratively colour the film."
Biography
Jennifer West was born in 1966 in Topanga, California.
She received her BA degree from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington with an emphasis in film and video. She later obtained her MFA degree from Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, California) in 2004, where studied with Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Mike Kelley, and Diana Thater. She serves as faculty at the University of Southern California (USC) at the Roski School of Art and Design. She is a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2025-26 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow.
Work
West makes 16mm, 35mm and 70mm films by manipulating the film celluloid to a level of performance. The film emulsion might be doused with perfume, Jack Daniels or pepper spray, skateboarded on or dragged through tar pits. West is also known for the Zine booklets that she produces featuring the production stills showing the making of the films. The destroyed and distressed films are then digitized and shown as looping video projections in museums and art galleries.
She is best known for the live performance, "Skate the Sky" (2009), staged at the Tate Modern in London where she invited skateboarders to skate over filmstrips taped to the floor of the Turbine Hall. Other significant commissions include, "One Mile Film" (for High Line Art, New York) where the artist taped a mile-long filmstrip to the length of the High Line walk-way in New York City for one-day allowing the visitors to leave their mark on the film by writing messages, drawing, and walking on the filmstrip. The damaged 58 minute, 40 second film was digitized to high-definition and shown as a digital projection onto the side of a building on the High Line. She has also made commissioned projects for Institute of Contemporary Arts London's Art Night (2016) Aspen Art Museum (2010) and as an Artist in Residence at EMPAC at RPI in Troy, NY and at MIT List Visual Arts Center (2011).
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Painted Cat Hacker Film, Midnight Moment, Times Square Arts, New York, NY (2021) Experiments with Holofans and Film is Dead..., Stefan Lundgren Gallery, Mallorca, Spain (2021) Future Forgetting, JOAN, Los Angeles, CA (2020) Is Film Over?, Yuz Museum Shanghai, Shanghai, China (2017) Action Movies, Painted Films and History Collage, Man Museum, Nouro, Sardinia, Italy (2017) Film is Dead..., Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (2016) Flashlight Filmstrip Projections, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland (2016) One Mile Film, Lisa Cooley Gallery, New York, NY (2015) Spirals, Salt and The Pill, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2013) Selected Films by Jennifer West, High Line Art, New York, New York (2012) Aloe Vera and Butter, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, England (2012) Heavy Metals: Iron and Zinc, Vilma Gold, London (2011–12) Perspectives 171: Jennifer West, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston (2010) Western Bridge, Seattle, Washington (2010) Paintballs and Pickle Juice, Kunstverein Nuremberg (2010) Pomegranate Juice & Pepper Spray, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, California (2009) Electric Kool-Aid and the Mezkal Worm, Vilma Gold, London, UK(2008) Lemon Juice and Lithium, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland (2008) Occamy, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, California (2007) White Columns, New York, New York (2007)
Projects and commissions
Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland (2016) Art Night London, Presented by the ICA London (2016) TBA Festival, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon (2014) High Line Art, High Line, City of New York Parks and Recreation (2012) 5th Biennial of the Moving Image, Mechelen, Belgium (2011) MIT List Visual Arts Center Artist in Residence Program, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2011) Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado (2010) Tate Modern, Tate, London (2009)
Immersive installations
Golden Corrosion, CAPITAL Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2018) Flashlight Filmstrip Projections, 2014/2016 Film is dead..., 2016
Filmography
Marinated Film – the roll of 16mm I had in the fridge for over ten years (16mm film negative marinated for several months in: Absinthe & XTC, Pepsi & Poprocks, Jim Shaw's Urine, Red Wine, Coffee & Detox Tea, Aphrodisiacs), 2005 Double Fast Luck Film (16mm film leader sprinkled with Red Luck Oil, Green Luck Perfume, soaked in mint, cinnamon and vanilla), 2006 Attraction Film (16mm film leader dripped words with maple syrup, soaked in red onion, red apple & red carnations), 2006 Hot, Spicy, Tingle Film (16mm film leader soaked for 3 months in: Ben Gay & Tiger's balm, salsa, 100 garlic cloves, crest striped toothpaste, red hots, hot tamales & altos, mouthwash), 2006 Comfort Food Film ("unprocessed" 16mm film negative cooked in mashed potatoes & gravy, macaroni & cheese, guacamole, ketchup, mustard & pickle relish, hot oatmeal, applesauce and spaghetti & meatballs), 2006 Yeah Film (16mm film leader soaked in clover, belladonna and poppie tea, inscribed with the word yeah written in beet juice and Pepto-Bismol), 2006 Tar Smell Film (16mm film negative exposed with cigarette light, dragged along beach sand tar, rubbed with skin so soft lotion and dripped with manic panic hair dyes – based on perfume notes for Tar Scent by Comme des Garcon), 2006 Tar Pits Film (16mm film negative thrown in the La Brea Tar Pits, ridden over hot tarmac by a motorcycle, soaked in kitty litter, lighter fluid, mayonnaise and body lotion) 2006 Paintball Film (16mm film leader "shot" with paintballs by me, Finn West and a bunch of 12 yr old boys), 2006 Psychosomatic Films #1 -5, 2006 Dirty Film (16mm film leader buried in dirt from my yard, the street and Elysian nudist colony, given mud bath and red hot lava mask), 2006 Odor Film 53 (16mm film negative dripped with nailpolish, burnt Rubber, xerox light, skimboarded over – based on notes from Comme des Garcon Odor 53), 2006 Odor Film 71 (16mm film negative soaked in lettuce juice, submerged in LA river, static electricity, dust on a hot light bulb – based on notes from Comme des Garcon Odeur 71), 2006 Odor Film 2 (16mm film negative soaked in horse manure, ink, patchouli incense, cumin -based on Odeur 2 notes), 2006 Naked Deep Creek Hot Springs Film (16mm film negative soaked in lithium hot springs water, Jack Daniels and pot – exposed with flashlights – skinnydipping by Karen Liebowitz, Benjamon Britton & Jwest), 2007 Whatever Film (16mm film leader soaked in lots of coffee, espresso & turmeric, taken on power walk, rubbed with sweat and inscribed with the word, "whatever" written in purple metallic eyeliner), 2007 Nirvana Alchemy Film (16mm black & white film soaked in lithium mineral hot springs, pennyroyal tea, doused in mud, sopped in bleach, cherry antacid and laxatives – jumping by Finn West & Jwest), 2007 Popped Cherry Film (16mm film leader stained with cherry juice, popped with hole puncher), 2007 My Milk Is Your Shit/Nirvana Alchemy Film 2 (35mm movie film frozen in breast milk from the freezer and hand processed), 2007 Led Zeppelin Alchemy Film (16mm film dripped with lemon juice, honey, wine, hit with a custard pie, tangerines, flowers and cucumber – featuring strobe light hair performances by Jill Spector & Jwest), 2007 Regressive Squirty Sauce Film (16mm film leader squirted and dripped with chocolate sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise & apple juice), 2007 Organic Biodynamic Natural Food Film (16mm film neg cooked in organic tofu dogs, hemp milk, beets, fried in cage-free, vegetarian-fed eggs, canned chili, peanut butter sandwich & steak sauce – hand processed in bathtub), 2007 A 70MM Film Wearing Thick Heavy Black Liquid Eyeliner That Gets Smeary (70MM film leader lined with liquid black eyeliner, doused with Jell-O Vodka shots and rubbed with body glitter), 2008 Rainbow Party on 70MM Film (70MM film leader kissed with lipstick & impressed with teeth marks by Jwest and her former students: Mariah Csepanyi, Maggie Romano & Roxana Eslemiah), 2008 Skinnydipping Carbon Beach Malibu Film – In Front of David Geffen's House (16mm color and b&w film neg sprayed with fried pickle juice, painted with Bloody Mary's using, celery stalks & ash from the Malibu fires, submerged in the ocean – skinny-dipping by Renee Lotenero, Lia Trinka-Browner, Karen Liebowitz& Jwest – lit by the full moon & search lights), 2008 Riot Grrrl Alchemy Film (16mm b&w and color film neg danced on with sneakers, sprayed with cherry tomatoes, rubbed with cinnamon butter buns, strawberries and candy bars – based on lyrics from Sleater Kinney, Bikini Kill and Le Tigre – food fight on the table performances by Ariel West & Jwest, shot on Super Bowl Sunday by Peter West who was kind of drunk), 2008 Roadtrip Between LA and Seattle Film (16mm color negative, positive and b&w negative scratched with tumbleweed, tire treads, pine needles, sprinkled with BlackJax extreme energizers pills, coffee, donuts, hot cheetos & doused with gasoline & gatorade), 2008 Idyllwild Campfire Smell Film (16mm film neg lit by the campfire and treated with bug spray, white gas, gin, sweat, smoke, pitch, marshmallow, beer, wine, pit toilet, dirt, sap, tent & sleeping bag – featuring marshmallow roasting by a bunch of friends), 2008 Daisies Roll Up Film (16mm color and b&w film neg rolled with hard boiled eggs, oranges, lemons, avocados, pickles, green apples, milk and watermelon – a remake of a scene from Vera Chytilova's 1966 film, Daisies – rolling off the bed performances by: Mariah Csepanyi, Finn West & Jwest, lit with black light & strobe light), 2008 Daisies Cut Up Film (16mm color and b&w film neg licked with orange & lemon juice, sprayed with pickle juice, rubbed with daisies and California poppies – cut up and pieced back together – a remake of a scene from Vera Chytilova's 1966 film, Daisies – scissor and image eating performances by: Mariah Csepanyi & Jwest, lit with black light & strobe light),2008 Malia the Babysitter Guitar Hero Film (16mm film neg rubbed with fruit loops sugar cereal, pizza and soda – guitar hero video game performances by Malia James, Finn & Ariel West and Colette Weber Shaw), 2008 I'm a (Beautiful) Stain/Nirvana Alchemy Film 3 (35mm film leader stained with Teen Spirit deodorant & glue – jumped on, skateboarded over, dove on, smashed & crushed – collaged back together with splicing tape – film crushed and smashed by Finn West, Keenan Bloughand Val Koziak), 2008 Electric Kool-Aid Fountain Swimming Film (35MM movie negative submerged in LA's Mulholland Fountain, dripped with Kool-aid and liquid LSD – featuring nighttime fountain swimming by Mateo Tannatt, Lia Trinka-Browner, Lesley Moon, Mariah Csepanyi and Jwest), 2008 Green M&M's & Mezcal Worm Film (70MM film leader with a mezcal worm dragged over the surface – imprinted with hundreds of green M & M's), 2008 Seriously Film (70MM Film Leader soaked in MSG and boiling water – inscribed & stamped with the word seriously – with Viagra, Visine and Fake tanning lotion), 2008