JEANETTE ANDREWS

NYC. b. 1990.

Andrews' practice seeks to create, and create access to wondrous things. Her work focuses on the development of interactive magic and sensory illusions via performance, sculpture, installation and audio.

 

Over 28 years of specialized study and technical training in parlor and sleight of hand magic has now afforded her a distinct perspective on crafting experiences with nuanced psychological underpinnings, the creation of surreal visuals and designing/building objects that function completely differently than they appear. Her research-based process centers around phenomenological philosophy, contemporary cognitive science, and physics. Her work is rooted in highlighting astonishing aspects of everyday life via moments of the seemingly impossible. Themes of pieces have included invisibility, impossible objects, the relationship between scent and magic, unseen communication, and how illusions can construct reality.

 

Andrews works closely with museums and galleries to recontextualize magic within the cultural arts and explore this craft as a performance art medium. She has presented numerous commissioned works with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as well as commissioned work for the Quebec City Biennial. Further site-specific works for numerous museums and galleries include the Elmhurst Art Museum, Birmingham Museum of Art, International Museum of Surgical Science and New York City’s National Arts Club. Andrews is also an acclaimed speaker, presenting with the Cooper Hewitt, Chicago Ideas, The British Society of Aesthetics, corporations, and universities (including Columbia and Harvard Law School’s Petrie Flom Center), and conferences across the country. She has been an artist-in-residence for High Concept Labs in Chicago, The Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles and CultureLAB LIC in New York City and the University of Houston’s Mitchell Center.  

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Andrews is also an Alumnus Affiliate of metaLab (at) Harvard. Illusion is Andrews’ life’s work and her performances have been praised by the Chicago Tribune, PBS, and the New York Times.

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image: Michael George