Personal Choices - Sculpture Magazine, March 2017
"Sam Jaffe constructs uncompromising sculpture using yarn and fabric. She gives form to soft materials often by knitting or sewing and enhanced by an authoritative use of color. These works are bold, the efforts of an artist with a defined point of view.
Jaffe is intensely focused, her work always astute. Appreciating the possibilities of ordinary material, she skillfully exploits medium beyond expectations. Although grounded by training at both The Rhode Island School of Design (BFA – 2005) and The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (MFA – 2009), Jaffe’s sensibilities are shaped and delineated by her interests outside of academia.
Describing her influences, Jaffe says, “Other contemporary artists who use soft materials like Tracy Emin, Louise Bourgeois, Do Ho Suh are also particularly interesting to me. That being said, I spend more time looking at items in the world like the sale rack at Forever21 or window displays at the dollar store and wondering about how these things came to be. You are much more likely to find me dumpster diving than in Chelsea. I am also heavily into crafts practices like Amish quilt making, Shaker spirit drawings, religious costuming and mask making, and other types of folk art. I don't reject the art world at all, I just don't look there for input all the time.”
It is this curiosity in things often overlooked that gives Jaffe’s work its particular vitality. She does not simply appropriate or critique what she observes, but absorbs the conceptual underpinning of these domains into her art. By re-contextualizing visual experiences into sculpture, Jaffe builds objects that reflect her extensive interests.
Jaffe sees herself as “an interdisciplinary and opportunistic artist, whose work takes on whatever form the concept dictates.” It is this openness to materials and approach that allows her to find the most personal means to fabricate her sculpture. Not intimidated to use techniques often considered off limits to professional artists, Jaffe knits, embroiders, sews and quilts with a confident hand. Her work demonstrates the capacity for what was seen as historically female and domestic endeavors to live and breath in gallery and museum spaces.
Jaffe has built works that hang on walls, almost like paintings. These pieces are three dimensional textile fabrications that read as reliefs. She also makes sculptures that are floor based as well as objects that appear to be conceived to fit a human form. The work makes evident an artist who is not defined by a signature style, but rather a creative orientation. Although different in format, all of Jaffe’s art reflects a consistent intellectual and philosophical perspective.
Using knitted material to articulate a sculpture offers opportunities to create works that reference domestic memory. In two wall pieces from 2012, Jaffe manipulates cloth, which she knitted herself. One is an untitled large sculpture (36" X 60"); the other, called Pre-Shrunk, is smaller and more intimate. In both, the cloth has the same thickness, texture and similar color intensities, but the material is arranged differently in each relief.
These pieces can be read in two distinctly contrasting ways. They are visually dynamic and each offers a pure aesthetic experience, while at the same time suggesting concepts for consideration. In the untitled work, Jaffe twists and turns the knitted cloth resulting in a piece that is robust and energetic. Pre-Shrunk, on the other hand, is more serene, with a minimal, orderly arrangement of the materials. Both are sculptures in relief. Pre-Shrunk is affixed to a wall. The untitled work is also wall mounted, but its base rests on the gallery floor.
While these pieces are compelling, due to Jaffe’s sensitivity to materials and fabrication techniques, they also transcend formal artistic considerations. Pre-Shrunk and the untitled knitted relief are cerebral sculptures that bring to form ideas that motivate Jaffe. The materials created to build these pieces resemble things familiar. They feel domestic, like sweaters found in a second hand shop. Meaning is implied, but is not specific. The encounter provokes thoughts about experiences beyond a rarefied gallery moment, offering impressions reminiscent of every day consumer activities.
For her 2009 sculpture titled Some Pig, Jaffe used construction gloves as the primary material. This piece can be presented in different ways, depending on the installation space. At first glance it is not obvious that all of the exposed surfaces of Some Pig are actually gloves. It reads as an organic form, dominated by an intense orange hue. As a pure abstract construction, it is compelling. Yet for Jaffe, this sculpture also transcends a concern for surface and form. A glove protects a hand, yet limits the sense of touch. These types of nuanced observations resonate with Jaffe and propel her artworks.
In 2013 Jaffe built four impressive sculptures that rely on the body as support. It is not a surprise that an artist with strong interest in consumerism, fashion and domestic issues would create wearable art. These pieces have been shown in galleries as both stationary objects and on a body moving around the space. Jaffe hopes the works are not perceived as garments or costume, but rather as a sculptural format, poetically suggesting living mountains, teepees or landscapes.
These four works are perfectly calibrated, grounded by considered assumptions. Sharing her thoughts on the body as an armature for sculpture, Jaffe explains, “I am generally very interested in fashion and how through dress, bodies become supports for a type of visual exchange. I have made a great many pieces using cast offs from the fashion industry and am always attempting to make meaning out of these cultural artifacts. Much of my work references the body (albeit a mutated or abstracted body), but this was the guiding impulse for the small body of wearable works. If I'm already replicating body parts, why not try incorporating real bodies?”
Considering everyday moments in second hand shops and the sale rack at Forever 21, Sam Jaffe imagines work that is keenly concept driven, while at the same time visually persuasive. She recognizes provocative details in conventional settings and makes probing art in response."
