JENNY RIFFLE: FENG SHUI FOR THE APOLLONIAN SET
Jenny Riffle’s work is a paean to the disaffected mopers of Gus Van Sant and the austere sentiments of Vermeer: alternately hip and edgy, yet delicately expressed. Her figures look outward and inward, staring wistfully out of windows or menacingly into them, or lingering in doorways and stairwells like threshold guardians. Are these color-coordinated somnambulists the victims of a traumatic family vacation? Are they ciphers? Liminal beings? Garden variety ghosts? Sedated purveyors of feng shui? The pastoral portraits “Matthew” and “Tiffany” are a refreshing and welcome addition to this series, as her subjects are temporarily freed from the strictures of suburbia (though they exhibit the same Apollonian detachment). If you live in the Seattle area, make sure to check out her next show this December at The Globe, on 14th between Pike and Pine, and drop by to visit her website. Here’s Jenny’s brief bio and summation of this series:
Riffle received her B.A. in Photography from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York where she worked with masters such as Steven Shore, Larry Fink and An My Lee. For her thesis exhibition she created thirty environmental portraits of her family, friends and fellow classmates, which laid the foundation to her current project. This project is an ongoing investigation into the practice of empathy and the psychological spaces of those most dear to her. Taking advantage of the hyper-realistic color and detail obtained by large format photography, she creates portraits of individuals who depict in one still moment the constant flux and minute differences, between feelings of unnerving tension and absolute calm.
