Jenny Perlin is fascinated by the concept of history. She approaches her work like an archaeologist, trying to investigate its development and its meaning. She does this on the basis of small fragments, details and speculations, combining film, animation, photography, drawings and objects in order to incorporate several narrative structures in the work. Her work often has to do with personal, national or cultural history.
At the Bakery her 16-mm black-and-white film 'Perseverance' will be shown and the 'White Noise' machine will be on display. In the film 'Perseverance', Perlin takes a quote from the book One-Way Street in which Walter Benjamin, writing in the mid-twenties, reflects on the everyday urban environment. Benjamin was searching for details that tended to be ignored, for that small fragment that, in his eyes, spoke volumes about modern existence. Perlin spent a long time recording her own observations, with the quote from Benjamin on a crumpled piece of paper in her pocket. In the film, images of hand-written sales slips alternate with images of New York architecture, aphorisms and drawings.
The 'White Noise' machine is a commercial product intended for people with sleep problems. The machine produces sleep-inducing sounds and fragrances like Summer Night, Ocean, White Noise and Spring Rain. During the showing of the film, the visitor is able to choose a sound from the White Noise machine and listen to it during the viewing
Jenny Perlin: White Noise bakery, 2 March - 6 April 2002
Past exhibition