One of Art Scene's Continuing and Recommended Exhibitions: Jane O'Neal's Environmental Memory: Part I - Home Grown

DNJ's current exhibition, featuring the work of Jane O'Neal, is featured in the June issue of Art Scene. This show is only open for three more weeks. Please stop by!


Root Ball, 2008, archival ink jet print, 44 x 34 inches

A. Moret

Rather than photograph plant life thriving and decaying in situ, Jane O’Neal brings a flatbed scanner to her backyard and scans birds of paradise, persimmons, and gnarled root balls. In her manipulation, handling, and recording of delicate objects O’Neal transforms natural elements into computer-generated objects. Therefore the prints in “Environmental Memory: Part 1--Home Grown” depict subjects that no longer exist. Instead O’Neal’s digital c-prints become the memory of her former home grown environment. Whether it’s “Apple Cactus,” depicting a rotted and blackened apple (a symbol of longevity and endurance), or “Persimmion #1,” in which O’Neal has granted us access inside the dying petals, “Environmental Memory” is a show about transition. “Root Ball” is an unearthed web of roots that appear to continue growing with ferocity even though they have been removed from the soil. The root is drenched in contrast--as it is still stained by the dirt and overexposed by the glare of the scanner. By uprooting the root ball, O’Neal demonstrates that “we’re all in transition,” and confirms that we are never living in a single environment but moving from one to the next (DNJ Gallery, West Hollywood).