For over a decade Sam Jaffe has been producing visually sensuous artworks that track contemporary colour representation via fashion and popular culture. Jaffe’s process is a combination of tracking mainstream usage of colour, recycling of materials, and spontaneity. The completed works often play with one’s vision to dizzying effect while simultaneously appearing to be inspired by the process of assembling a puzzle. This week The COMP Magazine took the Green line over to Jaffe’s East Garfield Park studio to discuss her entry point to being a visual artist, her perpetual attention to our use of colour, where she draws materials from, and what’s the plan for 2023.
In conversation, you identified an affinity with a “Midwestern” in temperament. Though you studied out east for undergrad, you returned to the Midwest to complete your MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Can we discuss your early introduction to the arts? Perhaps, you can you share with us any specific events or people who may have offered a platform for your interest in studio arts?
I have always thought about art making as simply a way to amuse myself. I grew up spending much of my alone time making things – I learned how to sew by altering clothing to fit my petite-for-my-age body. At summer camp, I was always in the craft tent making friendship bracelets and puffy painted t-shirts with the other “indoor kids.” I loved to draw and sculpt and collect unique objects. My always supportive parents signed me up for classes through our village rec center. Like most artists, I’m a tinkerer – curious about how things work and how things are made. Growing up I was always taking apart household objects to see what’s inside, catching potato bugs in my backyard to look at them under the microscope, and checking out the odd things people had donated at the thrift store. I didn’t know anyone who identified as an artist growing up. I was exposed to almost no contemporary art as a kid, so until I was well into my BFA, art meant modern, Western painting for the most part. Sculpture would have definitely involved a hammer and chisel, or worse, power-tools…scary! I doubt I could have named a single, contemporary, woman artist. I never had one of those really magical high school art teachers who changed my life or anything. So, I’m not sure I can pinpoint any specific event or person who guided me toward the arts. It’s just something I’ve always done and it’s something I feel like I could do forever!
I was sharing your work with several students at USF recently. In conversation we discussed a variety of items. Initially the students were drawn to the visual and visceral aspects in your work due to your adeptness in color theory and technique. Then, a student noted how the materials and their relationship to the commercial fashion industry surfaced. Another focused upon pattern, line, and weight. There was a freshness to their inquisitiveness in their readings.
I am really enticed by the idea of trend, especially when it comes to color. The idea that a color can be collectively deemed “cool” interests me. It seems as though it should say something about our particular pop cultural moment – millennial pink or Pantone’s Color of the Year for example. I’m not sure what these color trends reveal, but over time they are bound to tell us some kind of story. This is the reason I always use materials that are cast off from industry, vintage, or second-hand. I don’t exactly choose the materials I use, I just choose to use what others throw away. These cultural materials are never meaningless. I never start from scratch. The materials provide a starting point for me.
For a while, I was taking lots of pictures of the way that things are arranged and merchandised in fast fashion stores – places where there are so many clothes that are just recklessly scattered and combined. It is a beautiful accidental world of pattern and color. Forever 21 (RIP) has been of particular interest to me. Since all of the clothing is meant to be super on trend and in the moment, it is therefore is made and consumed without much effort, and discarded after a few uses. The clothes are a symbol or reflection of something cultural that is happening right now, so the process of trying to copy designer clothing has to happen really quickly and thus pretty poorly. The designs are knock offs of knock offs. I try to use these perversions of original designs and see how they could be incorporated into the work. I see myself as “saving” these items from their disposable nature – breathing life into them and forcing them to be experienced in the ways we experience the handmade. Some of my past work incorporates actual clothing from fast fashion brands. Other works make use of materials cast off from the garment industry.
You’ve maintained a serious studio practice for over a decade. Can you walk us through your tactile and conceptual process? I’m curious to know if there are specific ideas or approaches you see recurring?
I always start with my materials as I mentioned. Almost all of them are recycled, reused, repurposed, dead-stock, vintage, or otherwise sustainably sourced. I examine what I have and then I wonder about what I could do in response. I start putting different colors and shapes together and the work kind of evolves from there. I don’t usually have much of a plan or expectation and I never worry about what any of it “means” until I’m done and sometimes not even then. The act of making is enough content for me. A lot of my recent work is made like a puzzle – lots of small repeating pieces that get jammed together. I like testing my workmanship and patience. Painting, knitting, and sewing appeal to me because these processes require a very specific kind of extended attention. I’m always improving my skills. I like paying attention to every detail and being overly picky and perfectionistic. I’m trying to impress myself. I get the most joy from projects that include some amount of risk and uncertainty as I go. Lately, I tend to be attracted to patterns that have a swirling, dizzying effect. The complexity of form keeps me interested as I’m working. There’s always somewhere for my eyes to travel.
One of my most frequent questions to myself is: How do I honor the materials that have come into my life with my hands? How do I experience and tell their stories, elevate them, have fun with them, celebrate them, show them off?
What do you value most in your aesthetic practice?
For me, art making is about creating problems and solving them. It’s an ongoing conversation I get to have with my materials – trying to entice them into to doing what I want. When they don’t behave, I shift and compromise. It’s a back and forth. When I’m engaged in this way, I feel like my mind is empty even though I know it’s actually working very hard.
Can you tell us about what you are currently working on? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions? What are some items you hope to accomplish or investigate in 2023?
I am currently continuing my work on a series of pattern-based wall works. I start each of theses pieces by designing and knitting up yardage of patterned fabric using a knitting machine. I then laser cut my “puzzle pieces” usually out of wood. I then upholster the wood pieces with my fabric and sew the puzzle back together. I’ve been experimenting with layering these puzzle pieces on top of each other and using colored flocking for a more painterly effect. I’m participating in a couple of group shows slated for this spring/summer. One will be at Marquee Projects on Long Island.
For additional information on the aesthetic practice of Sam Jaffe, please visit:
Sam Jaffe – http://www.thesamjaffe.com/
Maake Magazine – https://www.maakemagazine.com/sam-jaffe
Sam Jaffe on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thesamjaffe/?hl=en
Inside\Within – http://insidewithin.com/sam-jaffe/
Lake Forest College – https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/majors-and-minors/art-and-art-history/art-galleries/sonnenschein-and-albright-galleries/sam-jaffe
Sculpture Magazine – https://sculpturemagazine.art/sam-jaffe-interdisciplinary-opportunism/
Artist interview and portrait by Chester Alamo-Costello
