Jenna Bliss’s photomontages, ready-mades, and Super 8mm films evoke the sensations of the agent observateur. Recorded on regular walks through New York, Jenna’s imagery of the cityscape and architectural environment is montaged with brand and advertising signage. Installed in an antechamber at 306 Maujer, Basic Cable brings together light boxes that exist within a constellation of film recorded in Manhattan’s Financial District. These superimposed images allude to the infrastructures that surround us and the matrix that runs below the city, signaling an analogical pairing that New Yorkers come across daily. These works are presented alongside the artist’s most recent film work, True Entertainment (2023), which follows the fictional artist Lola Van Haas and her gallery at a prestigious art fair in the lead up to the 2008 economic crisis and the US presidential elections.

Image: Jenna Bliss, Conspiracy, 2021. Super 8mm film transferred to HD video and animation,1:46 minutes. Courtesy of the artist; Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna; and Ulrik, New York.

Jenna Bliss is an artist, filmmaker, and video editor. She lives in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2024) and Homing at Ulrik, New York (2022).