Jennifer Elster | The Wake the F*ck Up Show

Jennifer Elster
The Wake the F*ck Up Show
October 26 – November 15, 2018

Opening reception: October 26, 6-8:30pm

signs and symbols is pleased to present The Wake the F*ck Up Show, a solo exhibition by multimedia artist, filmmaker and activist Jennifer Elster. A call to action, Elster’s exhibition features a variety of conceptual work, photography, video, performance, paintings and words. The Wake the F*ck Up Show opens on October 26th and will be on view through November 15th. An opening reception will be held for the artist on October 26th from 6 to 8:30pm.
Native New Yorker and underground artist Jennifer Elster puts forth a dialogue for our times in a multimedia exhibition. A survivor of many tragedies, including 9/11, Elster cuts through to the artery to move the American conversation further along.

“A direct and ample warning aimed to help America face the dire times they are in and wake the f*ck up (not excluding myself). I offer a jolt to reality by reflecting reality. My work screams out from my semi-isolated world, attempting to penetrate a predominately-posed-awake, but actually (as we know) mostly-dormant America. The Wake the F*ck Up Show urges the viewer to act now during these times of utter corruption which, if neglected, could soon leave us bankrupt of our peace of mind, altogether. My work pleas for direct cultural shift and awareness amid masses of Americans who watch on with passivity as we lose further control.” —Jennifer Elster

Jennifer Elster is a writer, director, artist, performer, activist and founder of The Development, an underground, multi-faceted studio based in New York City. Elster’s work offers a deep and direct awareness of the human condition and our current world crisis. She compulsively penetrates depth while both antagonizing and playing with the boundaries in film and mixed-mediums, and has collaborated with such artists as the late David Bowie and Yoko Ono, to name a few. Using words, paper, canvases, photographs, audio, video & performance art, Elster obsessively explores ways to deal with the severity of reality. As a guttural response to the political climate, in 2016 Elster exhibited “The Retrospective of an Extroverted Recluse” which was culled from a large body of her underground work amassed over her life, up until her photographic series, Warfare, which forecasted the impending nuclear crisis. Elster has exhibited video art and/or performed at venues such as the New Museum, Catinca Tabacaru, Salon Stux West, Central Booking and West Park among others. Elster is also known for her experimental filmmaking where she takes an unabashed look, both documentary and fiction, into the complexities of the psychology of existence, which can be at times hilarious and at other times terrifying. Elster spent years of deep, and, at times, bizarre excavation into the recesses of her mind and the minds of her subjects, analyzing the depths of human nature. She spent over ten years filming subjects in the woods. Her upcoming film series ..In the Woods, features such subjects as Terrence Howard, Will Shortz, Aimee Mullins, Glenn O’Brien, Temple Grandin, Moby and many others, with vocalizations by Yoko Ono. Most recently, Elster wrote a campaign in support of Net Neutrality with Gloria Steinem, and created a video campaign for Gun Control, both grassroot campaigns under her activism organization Nonpartisan Peace.