In the weeks leading up to the opening of the group show What is the Where? on November 13, we are profiling the 15 artists to learn more about them and their work.

Jess Levey
Brooklyn, New York

Jess Levey is a New York-based conceptual artist and documentarian who works in photography, video installation, and sound. Her work has been exhibited at Exit Art, NurtureArt, MoCADA, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. She received her BA from Barnard College and her MFA from Hunter College. Much of her work questions the pervasiveness of corporate dominance on our daily existence, while exploring the impending loss of autonomy that results from this power.

Video still from The Vacancy Project

Q: How are you using your art to interpret the show’s theme of location impacting perception?
A: As a native Brooklynite, I have watched as my hometown has been dramatically developed and in turn more and more homogenized. As large condominiums rise, I fear that Brooklyn will become an anywhere city, where large corporations take over space for small businesses and where rents soar, only allowing the wealthy to live and prosper. Brooklyn has always been identified by its amazing diversity, but with these developments and the impending Atlantic Yards construction, I do believe that Brooklyn will lose its unique character and energy. The DIY attitude that many Brooklynites adhere to will be replaced by a dependency on the ever prevalent Corporate presence. Brooklyn will begin to be perceived as a place like everywhere else in this country, where the voice of the individual is swallowed up by the capitalist greed of Big Business.

Q: Has the recession impacted your art?
A: I was laid off two years ago from the Hearst Corporation. At the time of the layoff, I was frustrated with my choice to work for such a company for so long, but was also relieved that I was finally forced to leave. As an artist, my work shifted dramatically. It remained political in nature, but the political became more personal. After working on a dramatic sound piece based on the words of the laid off, I began a project titled After The Crash,  in which I invited fellow laid off New Yorkers into my studio to perform an act of release towards the company where they used to work by blacking out a projected image of their old building. I like to think that the recession has opened many of our eyes and has created an attitude of self-reliance and a drive to be less dependent on the Big Businesses who failed and reaped the rewards of their failure while we drowned in their gluttony.

Visit Jess Levey’s Website

What is the Where? will show November 13 to November 21 at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.