installation in the Plus/Space: July 6 - AUgust 30, 2020

A Setting

Sara Jimenez and Jason Schwartz

For this site-specific installation in the FiveMyles Plus/Space, Sara Jimenez and Jason Schwartz use textiles to create diaphanous horizontal bars that extend from wall to wall. These strips of color are staggered so that from the front view they appear as a gradient of nearly immaterial, warm colors. Hushed tones drift in and out of edited field recordings of the turning of the day.

The installation is inspired by the sense of pause, grief, reflection, and care that arrive with the day’s end. The time of sunset has taken on new significance lately. It marks the end of another day during the pandemic and uprisings in New York. The NY landscape is immersed with information, sirens, warnings, fireworks, and uncertainty on one hand, and on the other, a sense that something is on the way, through gatherings, protests, marches, and vigils. The end of day may mark the change of another risky shift for weary ‘essential workers,’ or a time to set down daily work and gather in the streets to mourn or cry out for change, or a time to seek out the few loved ones we depend upon for closeness and affection in these moments of unknowns. The end of day marks a shift, and in that transition, we are reminded that we are shifting

A Setting can be seen from the sidewalk, through the open-works gate, as shown in the picture. At sunset, the exhibition gains in dramatic force, as the fading light outside offers contrast to the backlit, warm-colored drapes.

About the ArtistS

Jimenez is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Jimenez received her BA from theUniversity of Toronto (2008) and her MFA from Parsons the New School for Design (2013). Jimenez has exhibited at the Pinto Art Museum (Philippines), El Museo del Barrio, Rush Arts Gallery, BRIC Gallery, BronxArtSpace, FiveMyles Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, The Bronx Museum, and Smack Mellon, among others. She has performed numerous venues including The Dedalus Foundation, The Noguchi Museum,Jack, The Glasshouse, and Dixon Place. She has been an artist in residence at various organizations, including Brooklyn Art Space(2014), Wave Hill’s Winter Workspace (2015), a full artist fellowship to The Vermont Studio Center (2016),the Bronx Museum’s AIM program(2016), Yaddo (2018), BRIC workspace (2018), Art Omi (2019), Project for Empty Space (2019), LMCC's Workspace (2019/2020) and Bemis (2020/2021). She is the recipient of the Cecily Brown Fellowship and has been listed as Smack Mellon’s “Hot Picks” in both 2018 and 2019. Most recently, her work was acquired as part of the permanent collection of the Ford Foundation Center forSocial Justice. Currently, she teaches at Parsons the New School for Design, New York University, BMCC, and mentors graduate students at the Vermont College of Fine Art, and the School of Visual Arts.

Jason Schwartz is a writer and political activist living in Brooklyn. He works as a campaign and communications strategist in the struggle for economic, racial, and environmental justice and the rights of working people. His writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines. Jason was a founding editor of New Herring Press, which put the work of visual artists in conversation with contemporary writers, and he was a founder of curator of the performance/literary/film/music series Diamond Mouth Surprise.

Virtual Visit

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, and the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation.