Jennifer Steinkamp

Born in 1958 in Denver (USA), she lives in Los Angeles.

A pioneering new-media artist, Jennifer Steinkamp has had her work shown only rarely in Europe. A specialist in 3D animation, she has created a number of installations and been involved in collaborations with electronic musicians. Her work, initially abstract and concerned with optical effects, has recently turned towards combining technology with nature, which inspires a kind of aversion in her. Steinkamp presents us with an unreal nature, simulated and synthesised by special effects software.

Jimmy Carter, a hero of hers, gives his name to the video installation which Steinkamp is exhibiting at les Abattoirs – Musée Frac Occitanie Toulouse. Three walls, from floor to ceiling, are covered with a projected image of multicoloured columns of flowers, swaying together as if touched by a light breeze. They seem almost to intrude into the room, where visitors, an integral part of the artist's vision, gain a sense of the immaterial dimensions of light and the image as they undergo a species of physical, subjective vertigo.