I combine new media, technology, organic materials, and found objects to create interactive and immersive mixed media installations. I use a wide range of media to explore the relationships between memory and place, absence and mourning, and the power of connections between people and places across space and time. I reference both domestic and natural spaces in my work, using landscape as a metaphor for transformation, growth, cycles of death, and the hope for restoration. I combine personal experiences of light, sound, and shape in nature with scientific data and natural samples in order to unify both qualitative and quantitative experiences of place. I see liminal ecosystems, such as coasts and sites of environmental degradation and restoration, as living examples of grief and healing. I incorporate walks in nature into my process by documenting organic silhouettes and experiences of light through photography, collection, photogrammetry, and memory. As a result, my use of light typically imitates the dynamic nature of the sun in the environment: partially obscured, appearing through variations of opacity, or backlighting the work. I use silhouettes to represent both absence and hope. I create objects and spaces that bring me understanding and acknowledgement of both personal and ecological loss with the intention that those who interact with my work will engage with personal self-reflection and communal meaning-making.

About the Artist

Jill Stauffer is an multimedia installation artist from Pembroke Pines, FL, with current residence in College Park, MD. They are a second year MFA candidate in Studio Art at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2019, Jill received a BA from Middlebury College with majors in Studio Art and Architectural Studies. Jill has participated in artist residencies with NE Sculpture, Josephine Sculpture Park and Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program. Jill’s research at the intersection of art and technology has been recognized by their reception of the ArtsAmp Interdisciplinary Grant and the Clarvit Research Fellowship from the University of Maryland. Jill creates mixed media installations that explore the relationships between memory and place, absence and mourning, and the power of connections between people and the environment across space and time.

Memoir
2023
W: 144″, H: 80″, D: 42″
Acrylic, gifted objects, pothos, water, warm white LEDs