Jennifer Townley
Since gaining her degree in Artscience at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in The Hague (NL) in 2008, Jennifer Townley has been working as an independent kinetic artist, creating mechanical sculptures that instantly pique the viewers interest.
Powered by electric motors her machines generate repetitive patterns that twist, merge, and cascade as individually sculpted elements rotate on a single axis. Shapes are constantly being distorted and transformed, patterns convert smoothly into new patterns and independent forms seemingly unite to subtly interfere with the viewers mind.
The works derive from Townley’s fascination with science, with an emphasis on physics, engineering and mathematics. Geometric patterns in Islamic art or mathematical drawings of Dutch artist M. C. Escher often serve as inspiration. Images where lines and figures match each other so perfectly they could be repeated indefinitely. This infinity, regularity and obedience is what Townley also finds fascinating about mechanical machines; they are robust, strenuous and seemingly immortal.
In her art, Townley manages to fuse her love for mechanics, with an interest in human perception. Working on the basis that people react well to symmetry, order, repetition, she plays with these ideas, her patterns, in the midst of seeming chaos bring a sense of calm, creating an almost hypnotic effect on the viewer.
Her sculptures celebrate the beauty and possibilities of mechanics while establishing elusive moments in which tangled figures suddenly seem perfectly aligned or geometrical shapes become an organic undivided unity.
Townley’s work features in multiple public and private international collections and has been exhibited across the globe from Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, UAE, Dubai, USA and throughout the Netherlands.