J.R. Urestsky: What I Found Out There

October 14 – December 11, 2016

The Annex
855 Commonwealth Avenue

J.R. Uretsky’s newest work What I Found Out There resides at the intersection of public and private mourning, drawing on personal heartbreak. Uretsky looks to Sara Ahmed’s writings on queer grief and how pain, mourning, and melancholia have the potential to physically affect change or impress on the body. What I Found Out There combines monstrous puppetry and sound to craft an affective experience that begs the question: what comes after devastation?

Providence, Rhode Island-based J.R. Uretsky weaves performance, video, puppetry, and sculpture into emotionally charged, affective artworks that shift seamlessly between autobiography and fiction. Uretsky’s work confronts viewers with expressive confessions that test the bounds of comfort, personal space, and acceptable presence. Uretsky has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues in New York, Los Angeles, Finland, and Germany and her work was included in the 2013 DeCordova Biennial at The DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. She has performed and exhibited at The New Art Center, The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design Museum as well as the Museum of Art and Design in New York.