Singer-songwriter Jewell’s exhibition heads to Venice Biennale

During the upcoming Venice Biennale, the Crystal Bridges Museum will host an exhibition dedicated to the art singer and composer Jewel in Salone Verde, just a few steps from the Prada Foundation. The exhibition will run from May 10 to November 22 and is organized by Crystal Bridges Art Museum Special Curator Joe Thompson.

The exhibition is called “Matricylism: The Archeology of Lost Connections” and the theme is “Female Memory” [and] The myth of female power,” Jewell said art news In a recent interview; the title is a portmanteau of the words “matriarchy” and “cataclysm.”

She continued, “It explores the catastrophic events of matriarchy. I define feminine energy as the urge to connect and nurture that everyone exhibits. If we disconnect from the feminine energy, we lose the ability to connect deeply with ourselves in a meaningful way. We lose the ability to truly nurture ourselves in a healthy way. We lose community because we lose the ability to connect with each other and nurture each other. I think it’s a serious disease in society that we want to completely disconnect from the feminine principle and divorce ourselves.”

“Matricylism” will feature paintings, tapestries and sculptures with a sound component. The paintings that will be on display are from a series of works called “Rituals,” which Jewell describes as “about matriarchs and women in menopause,” noting that humans are one of the few species to experience menopause. The portraits in the series have a surrealist style, imagining Jewell’s “maternal lineage moving backwards and forwards through time.”

“Scientists believe that menopause evolved biologically so that women’s reproductive capacity declines so they can focus on teaching,” she said. “The series explores women as teachers, as well as female memory and female erasure.”

The exhibition will also feature three large-scale sculptures that “represent pure female power,” with the title first mother, seven sistersand heart of ocean. first motherThe sculpture, created in collaboration with sculptor Patrick Bongoy, will resemble a kneeling pregnant woman and will be displayed outdoors. seven sisters It takes its name from the Pleiades star cluster, named after the sister nymphs in Greek mythology. heart of oceanThe eight-foot-tall “represents the ocean as the womb, the source of the soul for all life on earth,” Jewell said.

Jewell’s interest in the idea of ​​the ocean as a womb stems from her childhood in Alaska, where she grew up surrounded by nature. “Even though my home life was very difficult, because of my nature, I had a visceral feeling of being supported, loved and cared for,” she said. “I wanted to see if I could create a piece that made you feel like nature was reaching out to you—a mother who always lends a helping hand, even though we don’t always return the favor in kind.”

in heart of ocean is a computer fed a live stream of open source ocean data from the Atlantic Ocean, such as measurements of wave height, precipitation, salinity and more, compiled with the help of scientists from NASA, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. This data is fed into 60,000 programmable light points that activate the sculpture. Based on compression of 150 years of ocean warming data, the sculpture will turn red for five seconds at one point.

“I’ve always been fascinated by science; I thought if I hadn’t been a musician, I might have gone into science. When I was homeless, I would read about quantum physics and superstring theory, which made me feel like anything was possible,” Jewell said. “I wanted to see, if I really stayed true to the math of nature, could I give your nervous system a big natural experience indoors?”

accompanying heart of ocean is a soundscape that responds to the sonic vocabulary created by Jewel. “Depending on how the ocean behaves, it can play out these words in different ways—another worldly sonification of data,” she said.

The challenge with this is that what this sonification produces is actually atonal. For example, the height of a wave may be similar to that of a wave, but as the wave gets taller, the notes get lower.

“You get more than one copy of this and it starts to sound like a fax machine,” she said. “This technique is the same as heart of ocean Research is underway on how to remain true to the data while creating harmonious work. Some ways I use sound to listen to data is to have it trigger a key change. “

this seven sisters The sculpture is also accompanied by a soundscape of seven women singing; the data was taken from the Pleiades open source data. “Each ball of light has its own voice, so the chorus of seven women will fill the space,” she said. The third soundscape will feature the sounds of heartbeats and breathing from another room.

The tapestry on display is eight feet tall and depicts a woman in a green suit engulfed in flames. “It kind of goes against the grain of something, but I felt it was important to include the tapestry because it’s traditionally considered a woman’s work,” she said.

Rod Bigelow, executive director of Crystal Bridges, said in a statement: “At Crystal Bridges, we are committed to elevating the voices of artists and creating spaces for curiosity and exploration. ‘Matricylism’ invites audiences to engage with pressing themes and discover new perspectives, sparking conversations that deepen our connections to art and to each other.”

While Jewell studied opera singing at the Interlochen Academy of the Arts in Michigan, she studied painting and sculpture, working in marble and clay. “Then my music career took off amazingly, so I didn’t do that much sculpture,” she said. “I’ve been painting my whole career, but I’ve only done it privately.” Recently, she started painting.

In 2024, Crystal Bridges hosted the exhibition “Gateways: The Artistic Experience of Jewelry,” billed as the artist’s “first museum project.” The exhibition features paintings and sculptures, as well as a drone performance with choreography and an original score by Jewell.

Jewell said the early exhibitions were about “bringing visual art, music and behavioral health together to see if I could positively impact people’s nervous systems through the rhythms of my exhibitions at the museum.” Audience members’ brain waves would undergo subtle changes, a response she calls “neurotherapy.”

“I decided to take it a step further with this show,” she said. this heart of ocean She said the sculpture can put visitors in 20 seconds into the Theta brainwave state, which is generally considered the state of deep relaxation during wakefulness.

That’s part of the reason Pearl wanted to bring the show to the Venice Biennale. “The Biennale is great, but it’s very hectic, hectic and exhausting,” she said. “I created the show as a restorative counterpoint, where you can go into the cool, dark and into a real moment of reflection that hopefully leaves you feeling nourished and replenished when you leave.”