permanent vacation

I'm taking a vacation from Jane's World to concentrate on The Janie Jones Archive which is my real passion these days. The Archive will be updated regularly online and will soon be housed in a proper space that can be visited by appointment, hopefully early in 2008.
Jane's World will exist for now as an archive and reference source for links to my favourite artists and writers. I'll probably post again at some point but I can't say when that will be despite dying to write about W magazine's latest Art Issue.
Thanks to everybody for reading over the last few years.

www.janiejones1979.com
www.janiejones1979.blogspot.com

Fiction non Fiction

"Janie Jones at the CoCoCo Lounge" Jane Irwin, 2006 (inkjet print)
Janie Jones will be exhibited in the Fiction non Fiction exhibition at the Surrey Art Gallery from September 8th to November 5th, 2006. The opening reception is on Sunday, September 17th at 2:00pm and yes, you will all be making the 35 minute drive out to Surrey to attend.
The exhibit includes work by David Carter, Adad Hannah, David Hoffos, Jane Irwin, Kelly Mark & Jeremy Turner.

Janie Jones ACA photo shoot

There's really nothing better than slathering on thick make-up and donning a wig, leggings & a polyester dress and heading out into 90 degree mega humid weather for a photo shoot. Seriously.

It's weird how much this Janie looks like Gloria Swanson when she's not wearing her wig. We did the shoot at Dairy Queen (yes, I frightened children - sorry Guthrie), and in the empty pool of the Shangrila Motel (hhmmmm - how oddly, Sunset Boulevard), and finished with interior shots of Janie and her band back in the ACA painting studio installation. In keeping with the ACA's spirit of collaboration, Melanie Schiff and I collaborated on the photos. It was amazing to be able to work with her and I owe a huge debt of thanks to both her and Janie's band mates, Travis Johns & Bryce Dwyer.

Janie Jones at the Atlantic Center for the Arts

Fourth of July

re:union:a flag for the blue states, 2005
Marlene McCarty
3' x 5' unfurled, edition of 19

Paradise Found

I arrived safe & sound at the Atlantic Center for the Arts on Monday night and all I can say is that it is beyond my greatest expectations. Everyone is working on really smart and interesting projects, the facilities are fantastic, the location is beautiful, the food is excellent. I have many new best friends.
Aside from the humidity contributing to the Bozo the Clown Coif I’m sporting, everything is smokingly awesome.
My work is going really well and I’m feeling like I will be able to bring my art to a new level while I’m here. I had an excellent meeting with Marlene McCarty yesterday. I feel really privileged to have this opportunity to get feedback from her. You can hear her talk about her work on the local NPR station and see it online at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery (who, perhaps not coincidently, also happens to represent several of my other favourite artists: Kara Walker, Vik Muniz & Wangechi Mutu). The women in our group are also really interesting and I’ve had many great conversations about their projects and really good discussions about where Janie Jones can go. Some of them have info on the web so I’ll figure that out and post links to their work.

Ben Wright Installation - Elsewhere

In the main room of the Third Floor at Elsewhere, Seattle artist Ben Wright created this installation.

3rd Floor at Elsewhere

These are the stairs to the left of the dollhouse viewed from the 3rd floor landing

the ceiling of the stairwell

stuff on the 3rd floor landing

the view of the main room on the 3rd floor from the entrance. On the right hand side you can see part of Seattle glass artist, Ben Wright's installation.

Elsewhere - 2nd floor

the second floor landing/"hotel lobby" with the dollhouse. the door behind the dollhouse is the entrance to "Janie Jones'" room & the staircase to the right leads to the dementia of the 3rd floor
The first time I went to Elsewhere, I thought I had enough documentation to give/remember a sense of the place. Later I realized that I hadn't even remotely come close to conveying what it's like there. So this time, armed with my brand new fancy pants digital camera that I had no idea how to use I endeavoured to make photographic ammends...huh? Basically I self crash coursed how to use the camera (thanks Dad for long distance advice) and took 350 photographs which have are now sucking the life force out of the memory of my computer. Little by little I'll post them.

strange events take place in this dollhouse...

Janie Jones

Elsewhere Artist Collaborative

I've been in Greenboro since Tuesday night and since my time here is so limited I have been working non-stop on Janie Jones. I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days. Things have changed quite a bit since my last residency. The entire space has been totally (re)organised, including the upstairs. A couple of artists have done some incredible installations.
Sadly, Greensboro has changed as well. Blumenthal's, the crazy old skool clothing store, has been replaced by a hideous loft development and a few of the good little stores & markets are gone...

I don't care what you think unless it is about me

I can finally share some great news I just received. I have been accepted to work with Marlene McCarty as an associate artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. I'm going to be developing my "Janie Jones" project. More about that soon.
Yeah!

Irwin Toys With Punk Nostalgia...

and the stuff of young girls' dreams.
This is an interview I did with Mari Sasano of The Edmonton Journal about my exhibition at Latitude53. enjoy.
"If the text on Jane Irwin's light boxes seems familiar, think back to your old mix tapes. There they are. Hole. Nirvana. Breeders. The Velvet Underground. The Cure. The Smiths. R.E.M. Embroidered in pink curly script, accompanied by translucent dolls. It's the 40-year-old's version of scribbling lyrics into a diary, and, as it turns out, it's universal! This is kind of a girly thing to do!
JI: I guess so. I imagine men have the same experience, if not marking them in the same way. I used to write letters to my friends or write in my diary - I still do - 'I met this guy last night and it's Sweet Emotion.' That kind of thing. And the little resin dolls are cast from dolls in the '60s and '70s. Inside them, there are little objects related to what the song says. That to me is very girly, to create these shrines to our experiences or relationships. We've all done that.
It's true.
JI: I've always been into music. When I was younger, I was involved with the alternative music scene; my friends were musicians. We'd go out and see bands we heard on the University radio station or read about in magazines, but the local music stations would be playing Boston and Led Zeppelin. And it's harder now, you have to work to find music. But every band has a website and they link to other bands. I end up spending five hours on the computer! Definitely, for this show, I spent a lot of time researching.
How do you pick the songs?
JI: I use a lot of narrative in my work, storytelling. And I'm very interested in music, its ability to convey emotions we sometimes find difficult to express ourselves.
I went through my favourite songs and looked at the lyrics and I was amazed how banal and uninteresting they were. So I picked out sections from lyrics that stand on their own. If you know the song, you might have a personal memory of that, or it can just have meaning on its own. It was quite difficult actually. I did 22 of these and I had 60 songs and eliminated most of them.
Will there be music playing?
JI: Actually, I'm gonna play some songs as "Janie Jones," from the song by The Clash. I'm creating an installation, Janie Jones' room, but she's always had a dream of being a musician. Well, my brother has a recording studio so I recorded five songs, covers by iconic female artists like Kim Gordon, X-Ray Spex, Kim Deal and The Runaways. Five songs, and they're quite...pathetic! But that's part of the charm.
And now you have music to fall back on if this art thing doesn't work for you!
JI: Yeah, it's not much to fall back on! But it's a lot easier for young women now. I dated a lot of guys in bands, but it never occurred to me to play in one."

Jane's Best of North Carolina & Tennessee

baby-jane-lane
Originally uploaded by jane1000.

Now that I'm back in Vancouver I've been thinking about some of the highlights of my time in the South and I decided to compile my Best of the South List...

Best street to live on in rural North Carolina:
Baby Jane Lane, middle of nowhere, NC

Best Artist Run Centre:
Elsewhere Artist Collaborative - Greensboro, NC

Best Vintage Clothing:
Design Archives - Greensboro, NC
Flashback - Memphis, TN

Best Record Store/'70s Museum:
Shangri-La - Memphis, TN

Best Live Music Venue:
Wild Bill's - Memphis, TN

Best City Museum:
Civil Rights Museum - Memphis, TN

Best Rural Museum:
Bufford Pusser Home & Museum - Adamsville, TN
Floyd Garrett Muscle Car Museum - Sevierville, TN

Best Ribs:
Larkin's on the Lake - Lake Lure, NC

Best BBQ:
the duck special at 223 South Elm - Greensboro, NC

Best Hush Puppies:
Bert's Seafood - Greensboro, NC

Best Biscuits, Grits & Gravy:
The Smith Street Diner - Greensboro, NC

Best Coffee:
The Green Bean - Greensboro, NC

Best Bed & Breakfast Breakfast:
Blair Moore House B & B - Jonesboro, TN

Best Inn Decor:
Blair Moore House B & B - Jonesboro, TN

Best Car Magnet: "freedom isn't free" - "these colors don't run"

Best Reason to Turn Down Local's Offer to Share Insider Knowledge:
Our waiter/local river rafting guide's offer to take us rafting to the location where "that scene" in Deliverance was filmed - Chattanooga, TN

Best Place to Bond With Gnomes:
Rock City - Chattanooga, TN

Most Beautiful Place to Get Road Rage:
The Blue Ridge Parkway - North Carolina

Scariest Place to be a Woman, Gay or Both:
Cumberland County, TN

Best Place to be a Woman, Gay or Both:
Asheville, NC

Freakiest Bug to Encounter in a Bathroom:
Cave Cricket

This unusual cricket lives a life in almost total darkness. But it doesn't seem to mind. Instead of relying on its eyes to navigate through cave passages, the cave cricket maneuvers using its long antennae to "feel" its way and to find food. It resembles other crickets in one important way, however -- it has long, powerful legs for jumping.

COMING NEXT: the film, literature & Music guide to Elsewhere.