Educated as an American teenager in London, Jaffé earned a BA Honours in Fine Arts & French Literature from the University of East Anglia in England. Childhood exposure to Asian art influenced her visual sensibility. Eastern depictions of space and their evocation of so much with such economy, informs her work’s formal clarity.
Jaffé has exhibited at NYU Audio Lab 230 at 370 Media Commons, Brooklyn, NY, The New Media Gallery, Vancouver, Beall Center for Art + Technology, UC Irvine, Duke University Power Plant Gallery, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, Harvestworks Govenor's Island, WhiteBox, Culture Lab LIC, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Milton Art Bank, PA, Morlan Gallery at Transylvania University, Lexington, KY and solo shows in New York City at 11 Rivington, Bosi Contemporary, Wald & Po Kim Foundation, Susan Berko-Conde Gallery.
Jaffé was awarded a 2025 Pollinator grant, a New Works Commission grant from Harvestworks Digital Media in 2023, 4 Individual Artist grants from NYSCA, 3 QAF grants from Queens Council on the Arts and is a 4 time fiscally sponsored artist of NYFA and has been a panelist for NYSCA.
Jaffé was Artist-in-Residence to the Computer Music Department at Brooklyn College and was awarded residencies at the Exchange Museum and The Newlyn Gallery in England, MacDowell Colony and Djerassi.
Video work, “Tea with Estelle” is in the museum collection of Listasafn Islands National Gallery of Iceland. Jaffé has 30 accessory design works in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology and Palais Galliera - Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris.
For the past quarter century, in the period since 9/11, my work has addressed the interwoven realities of pain and power. Four works in particular—WAPPEN FIELD, SOUL JUNK, MURMUR/MUTTER/YELL, and GRIFTER’s Gambit—trace the rise of narcissistic “bro culture” and examine the behaviors through which democratic norms in the United States are weakened and eroded.
Using three-dimensional sound and video, this suite of works evokes movement through shifting emotional states: fear of the unfamiliar & the other, psychological abuse, and the gradual recognition that our labor is uncompensated while our data is extracted and monetized by large language models. These experiences are marked by pain inflicted by those who treat other people as territory to be colonized for exploitation and controlled for power.
My work reflects the belief that we must be more discerning about whom we entrust with authority, particularly figures who regard their own judgment as uniquely correct and their solutions as the only viable ones. Often marked by narcissism, these figures can dismiss the knowledge, lived experience, and cultural contributions that others offer to the common good. The work creates an immersive environment in which viewers can encounter and better understand the oppression such people impose. By making these dynamics felt rather than merely described, it invites reflection on the consequences of granting power to leaders who substitute certainty and control for humility, listening, shared knowledge, and collective problem-solving.
While much of humanity seeks belonging, meaning, and mutual care, “bro culture” is often oriented toward accumulation, dominance, and escape. Its most extreme fantasies imagine amassing enough wealth to leave Earth behind, while others are left to contend with a planet depleted of the resources necessary to sustain healthy life. In rejecting altruism and collective responsibility, its adherents may operate according to a logic of realpolitik: a worldview that elevates power above care, treats its own assumptions as superior, and authorizes domination over others.
The central concern is the direction in which populist rhetoric—amplified by political leaders, elected officials, and judicial decisions—has pushed public life. When we choose leaders driven principally by personal wealth and power, and for whom social progress is secondary, we gradually weaken the institutions and conditions that enable human beings to flourish. What is endangered is the supportive environment necessary for creativity and advancement in science, the arts, philosophy, literature, and culture.
This erosion is especially consequential at a moment when democratic societies must confront artificial intelligence: an accelerating force that can deepen inequality, further concentrate power, and test the conditions required for collective survival.
American sculptor and intermedia artist Michelle Jaffé creates time-based experiential and immersive works that prompt active listening and awareness in space. Her sculpture, sound and video installations present complex experiential propositions. To enter them, can increase awareness of the volatile structures percolating in the underbelly of society. Jaffé sculpts sound in space, through cutting edge programing in SuperCollider, Reaper, Max & speaker technologies of Holosonic & Wave Field Synthesis and geo-location through Wi-Fi, Cellular Data, UWB and Bluetooth. She works with sound to expand sculptural experience, as a gestalt to forge new neural connections, by engaging mind, body & limbic brain simultaneously.
Seminal influences: at a young age, Jaffé was transported by the immensity of Stanley Kubrick’s vision for “2001”: powerful images paired with compelling sound design. Other influences are LaMonte Young's "Well Tuned Piano" where overtones hang in the air as cumulative vibrational mass; and experiencing the physical, disorienting effect of Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arcs”. Jaffé shares a sensibility for scale with Jackson Pollock and a sense for the comedic and the theatrical with Oskar Schlemmer, Robert Wilson and Pina Bausch.
Tracing the Arc of my Work Since 9/11Curriculum Vitae
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Curriculum Vitae •
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2025
NYU 370 Media Lab, GRIFTER’s Gambit-Composition 1, Video/Sound Installation, New York, NY
2024
Culture Lab, Behind the Mask: The Art of Women Welders, Wappen Field, curator Tess Howsam, Long Island City, NY
Jaffé Open Studio, GRIFTER’s Gambit-Composition 1 sound installation, NYSCA New Media grant
2023
Harvestworks Govenor's Island, LocaleS3, Harvestworks New Works Residency award
2021
11 Rivington pop up, Murmur/Mutter/Yell, Sound installation, NYSCA New Media grant
2019
WhiteBox, Differing Facets in our Distinct Futures, (Soul Junk) 3-Person show by Lara Pan, NY
2017
Milton Art Bank, Milton, PA, Soul Junk, 3 Channel Video & Sound installation
2016
NYCEMF, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Abrons Arts Center2015
2015
Transylvania University, Home and Field: Digital Explorations of Community, Lexington, KY
2014
Valentine Gallery, Neural, Work-in-Progress, NY
2013
Valentine Gallery, Neural: Cleave, Work-in-Progress, Ridgewood, NY
2012
Bosi Contemporary, Wappen Field, NY
Bushwick Open Studios 2012, Wappen Field, NY
Queens Art Express 2012, Queens Council on the Arts, Wappen Field, NY
Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Gallery, Non-Profit Foundation, Awakening, NY, NY
2011
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Wappen Field, Grand Rapids, MI
Park Avenue Armory, Shen Wei Dance Residency, Watusi Regime, NY
2010
Susan Berko-Conde Gallery/E.M Berko Archive, New Work, NY, NY
2008
Broadway Gallery, Malka Lubelski Foundation, Wappen Field: Work In Progress
Djerassi, Bed of Nails, Iraq 4000, Site-Specific Installation, Woodside, CA
Site Specific Installation, PS1’s Backside, Long Island City, NY
2005
Brooklyn College, The Booth Project, Sound Installation, Electro-Acoustic Festival, NY
2004
150 m3 Largus, Austellungs und Projektraum, Cologne, Germany
Susan Conde Gallery, Vestments: New Sculpture, NY
2002
Alison Bradley Salon, New Work, NY
Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, Vestment, Sound Sculpture, NY
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2024
Museum Wilhelm Morgener, Raum Schroth, 3d, curators Julianne Rogge & Ivo Ringe, Soest, Germany
2023
Listasafn Islands National Gallery of Iceland, museum permanent collection, gift of
Helgi Þorgils-Friðjónsson and Rakel Halldorsdottir, Reykjavík, Iceland, Tea with Estelle: Covid
2022
White Box, Ballots not Bullets, (Crossing the Fire Wall), New York
Van der Grinten Galerie, The Shoe Show, curator Ruth Marten, Cologne, Germany
Southampton Art Center, A Celebration of Trees, curator Laurie Dolphin, Southampton, NY
2018
Artworks Advisory, Under the Parachute of Shapes & Colors, curated by Lara Pan, NY, NY
Newlyn Art Gallery, Structures Residency, Newlyn, UK
2017
New Media Gallery, Vancouver, Voicing, (Wappen Field ) with Marcus Coates and Martin Backes
Platform Art Fair Film Festival, Anyone Can Apply for the Job, New York
AptArt, A View from the Cloud, curated by Nina Colosi, Streaming Museum, New York
IUCA+D Art Gallery, Indiana University, In Conversation, curated by Stephanie Buhmann, Columbus
The Power Plant, Duke University, Soundings: Protest\Politics\Dissent, Durham, NC
2016
Sunview Luncheonette, curated by Michael Schumacher, “Estelle” Performance, NY
Stony Brook University, Fifty years of Music and Technology, From Sine Waves to Robots, NY
The Exchange Museum, Restructured, Penzance, England
Macy Art Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University,In Conversation, by Stephanie Buhmann, NY
2015
Bosi Contemporary, Come to Bed!, 3-Person show curated by Roya Sachs, NY
Songs For Presidents, Total Styrene--True Believer, curated by Lizzie Scott, NY
Shirley Fiterman Art Center, BMCC, In Conversation, curator: Stephanie Buhmann, NY
2014
Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Gallery Foundation, Painting Black, curator Ivo Ringe, NY
George Washington University, L.W. Brady Art Gallery, What Not to Wear: Women Sculptors, DC
2013
Beall Center for Art + Technology, UC Irvine, Sight & Sound, Wappen Field
Wave Hill, Tandem Pursuits: Armor & Ichthyology, New York
Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, All of Me, New York
NYFA Benefit, Wappen Field, curated by David Terry
2012
Arizona State University, Momentum: Women/Art/Technology, symposium by Muriel Magenta
1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, To be a Lady: a century of women in the arts, curated by Jason Andrew, New York
Queens Museum of Art, DisTorpia, Media series curated by Arlan Londano & Gabriel Roldos
Queens Museum of Art, Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle
Norte Maar, Bushwick Open Studios, NY
New York Foundation for the Arts, NYFA Boot Camp II Exhibition, New York
2011
Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Chain Letter, Santa Monica, CA
2010
New York Foundation for the Arts, NYFA Boot Camp Exhibition, New York
ArtWare at The Armory, New York, NY
2009
Susan Berko-Conde Gallery/E.M. Berko Archive, The Lightness of Being, New York
2008
Islip Art Museum, Fashion Forward, East Islip, NY
Lehman College Art Gallery, Informed by Function, Bronx, NY
2007
Truro Center for the Arts, Castle Hill, 10 Painters Invite 10 Others, MA
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Transparency, VT
2006
Corridor Gallery, Transparency, Reykjavik, Iceland
2006 Bellevue Biennial Sculpture Exhibition, Bellevue, WA
Victory Hall, ProArts, Beth Venn, Curator, Jersey City, NJ
Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich, Vienna Art Fair, Vienna, Austria
2005
Sacred Heart University, WetLab: The New Nexus between Art and Science, Fairfield, CT
150m3 Largus, Projektraum, Uns geht es gut und danke fur den Fisch, Cologne, Germany
2004
Islip Art Museum, Site Specifics ‘04, East Islip, NY
University of California Santa Barbara, Fracturing Fairy Tales, CA
2003
New York Studio School, Vulnerability, Bill Jensen, Curator, NY
2002
Nexus Gallery, Craig Houser, Curator, NY
Ceres Gallery, NY, Charlotta Kotik, Curator, NY
2001
Barrett Art Center, New Directions 01, Charlotta Kotik, Curator, Poughkeepsie, NY
New York Studio School, Beckoning Vision, Karen Wilkin, Curator, NY
2000
Artist’s Space, Drawing Benefit, NY
1996
New York Dharmadhatu/Shambala, Dharmic Expressions, Daniel Berlin, Curator, NY
1993
New York Studio School, Drawings, NY
1987
Museé de la Mode et du Costume, From the Museum’s Collection, Paris, France
1983
New York University, Political Art, Coosje Van Bruggen, Curator, NY
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2026
Pollinator Peer Group supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts
2025
Pollinator Peer Group supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts
2024
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency Grant, “Wappen Field” at Culture Lab LIC
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant for Grifter’s Gambit
2023
Queens Council on the Arts, QAF Grant for Grifter’s Gambit
New York Foundation for the Arts, Fiscal Sponsorship, Grifter’s Gambit
Harvestworks Digital Media, New Works Residency award for LocaleS3
2021
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant for Murmur/Mutter/Yell
2020
Queens Council on the Arts, QAF Grant for Murmur/Mutter/Yell
New York Foundation for the Arts, fiscal sponsorship for Murmur/Mutter/Yell
2018
Newlyn Art Gallery, Structure Residency, Newlyn, England
2016
The Exchange Museum, Restructured Residency at The Engine Room, Penzance, England
2014
Queens Council on the Arts, QAF Grant for Soul Junk
2013
New York Foundation for the Arts, Fiscal Sponsorship for Soul Junk
Queens Council on the Arts, QAF Grant for Neural: Cleave
2011
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant, Wappen Field
2010
New York Foundation for the Arts, Artist as Entrepreneur Boot Camp
2009
New York Foundation for the Arts, Education Opportunity Grant
Queens Council on the Arts, NY, Artist Leader Peer Circle
2008
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist grant, Wappen Field
Queens Council on the Arts, NY, IAI, Independent Artists Initiative
New York Foundation for the Arts, Fiscal Sponsorship, Wappen Field
Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Pritzker Foundation Endowed Fellowship, Woodside, CA
2005
The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
2004
Brooklyn College, Artist-In-Residence, Department of Computer Music, Brooklyn, NY
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Listasafn Islands National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík
Palais Galliera - Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, collection and archives
The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, NY
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2025
Two Coats of Paint, November 5, 2022, Michelle Jaffe’s multi-sensory encounters: Susan Silas interviews Michelle Jaffé
2022
On Autumn Lake, The Collected Essays, Douglas Crase, 2022, Aperture on a Virtual World, p. 340-351
2019
New York Studio School, “Michelle Jaffé in conversation with Joy Episalla,” YouTube, @26:28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0fmQH0_1dE
2017
Lines from London Terrace: Essays, Douglas Crase, 2017, Aperture on a Virtual World, p. 229-238
Brice Brown Interviews Michelle Jaffé, Soul Junk, 12/17/17, https://vimeo.com/247235694
2016
M/E/A/N/I/N/G, edited by Mira Schor & Susan Bee, Final Issue, December 17, 2016, http://ayearofpositivethinking.com/2016/12/17/meaning-the-final-issue-on-a-year-of-positive-thinking-7/
http://parisdiarybylaure.com/cornwall-old-new/#comment-1891 Gorky's Granddaughter, Video Interview November 13, 2016, http://michellejaffe.com/soul-junk
Paris Diary by Laure de Gramont, http://parisdiarybylaure.com/cornwall-old-new/#comment-1891
WBAI FM Radio Interview, State of the Arts NYC, Savona Bailey-McClain, July 1, 2016
New York Studio Conversations: 17 Women Talk About Art, Stephanie Buhmann, p. 174-183
2015
News.artnet.com, “The 1 Must See Art Event in NY this Week”, 3/23/2015 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jeffrey-deitch-and-massimiliano-gioni-in-conversation-280065
Under Main, Christine Huskisson, "To What Do We Belong", October 9, 2015
Lexington Herald-Leader, September 2015 Gallery Hop Highlights, September 17, 2015
NYFA Current, A Conversation with Artist Michelle Jaffé, Madeleine Cutrona, April 17, 2015
Bedford & Bowery, Come to Bed for some Pillow Talk with this Artist, Angelica Frey, 3/26/15
2014
Washington Post, In the galleries: Where nature and art come together, Women Sculptors, Mark
2013
Queens Tribune, Sound Artist Visits QCA, Trisha Sakhuja, November 21, 2013
Beall Center for Art + Technology: Interview, Sight and Sound 10/3/2013
The New York Times, Where Medieval Armor Meets the Aquatic, Susan Hodara, 9/19/13, p. WE9
StephanieBuhmann.com, Interview 01, Stephanie Buhmann, January 29, 2013
2012
A Public Space, Aperture On A Virtual Field, Douglas Crase, Winter No. 17, 2012, p. 68-79
e_fagia,DisTorpia Media Series, exhibition brochure, Gabriel Roldos & Arlan Landano, p4
MacDowell Colony Bulletin, Cover, Wappen Field, Vol. 41, No 1 Summer 2012
NY Arts, 3rd Generation, from Rome to LES, by Sandro Bosi, July 25, 2012
World Sculpture News, Awakening by Michelle Jaffé, by Robert C. Morgan, Hong Kong
New York Culture Beat, Awakening by Michelle Jaffé & "Visitors" by Heather Sheehan, Suki Park, March 20, 2012, http://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Art&document_srl=36831
Wall Street Journal, Arts Scene Sprouts in Ridgewood, Queens, Kavita Mokha, 1/27/2012, p. A20
2011
The Profitable Artist, edited by Peter Cobb, Susan Ball, Felicity Hogan, NYFA, p 212, p 218
Grand Rapids Press, UICA exhibit embodies ArtPrize, Joseph Becherer, 9/27/11, p. A7 https://www.mlive.com/artprize/2011/09/artprize_exhibition_center_review_uica_entries_on_display_have_intelligence_diversity.html
Fox 17 News, Grand Rapids, Live Interview: Wappen Field, 9/19/11
Grand Rapids Press, GVSU ArtPrize Project, UICA review, https://www.mlive.com/artprize/2011/10/gvsu_artprize_project_review_of_uica_works.html Dale Johnson, 10/3/11
http://blog.mlive.com/artprize/print.html?entry=/2011/10/gvsu_artprize_project_uica.html
Grand Rapids Press, GVSU ArtPrize Project, review of UICA works, Jessica Smith, 10/8/11 https://www.mlive.com/artprize/2011/10/gvsu_artprize_project_review_of_uica_works.html
Grand Rapids Press, Photo Opening Night UICA, 9/21/11, http://photos.mlive.com/grandrapidspress/2011/10/first_night_of_artprize_crowds_9.html
Yahoo News, Crowds Check Out Michelle Jaffé’s ArtPrize Entry Wappen Field (photo)
USA Today, ArtPrize draws Wild, wonderful works to Grand Rapids, October 2011
Channel 13 Grand Rapids, Jessica Puchala, 9/27/11, http://grcentral.wzzm13.com/news/news/62070-uica-home-helmet-artprize-entry
Rutgers University, Mason Gross Gallery, Momentum: Women/Art/Technology, http://www.momentum-women-art-technology.com/jaffe.htm
Art Experience NYC, On Notice, Beyond Art Galleries, Claire Lieberman, Vol 1, No 4 Fall 2011, p 16-33, online magazine
Art Experience NYC, When Bad is Good, Creativity and the Downturn, Claire Lieberman, Vol 1
No 3 Summer 2011, p 19-37, online magazine
2010
The New York Times, Canterbury Tales in Staten Island and Other Budget Fun, November 4
California Home & Design, Fjord Collection, April 2010
New York Spaces, Fjord Collection, March 2010
The Denver Post, In House: Heartfelt Housewares, February 27, 2010
The New York Times, Bowls That Could Double as Hats, Elaine Louie, February 4, 2010, D3
2009
Walrus, The Whole Story, Helen Humphreys, April 2009, p.48-51
The New York Times, Where Fashion Meets Its Artistic Match, Benjamin Genocchio, LI edition, January 8, 2009
2008
New York Arts Magazine online, The Seen and Unseen, Milton Fletcher, November 2008
Newsday, Clothes calls: What the artists are saying, Steve Parks, November 28, 2008, p. B22
The Suffolk County News, Assorted apparel tapered as art, Tinamarie Caputo, 12/18/2008, p. 13
Islip Bulletin, Assorted apparel tapered as art, Tinamarie Caputo, December 11, 2008, p.12
The New York Times, Bowls That Could Double as Hats, Elaine Louie, February 4, 2010, D3
New York Arts Magazine online, The Seen and Unseen, Milton Fletcher, November 2008
2006
2006 Bellevue Biennial Sculpture Exhibition, Interview with the Artists, Podcast, WA, August 2006
City of Bellevue TV, It’s Your City, 2006 Bellevue Biennial Sculpture Exhibition, WA, July 2006
2005
Four Seasons, Forbes Publishing, The Home Collection, Brook S. Mason, December 2005, p. 124
2004
The New York Times, Site Specifics ‘04, Helen Harrison, July 11, 2004, p. 11, LI edition
Islip Art Museum, Site Specifics ‘04, Karen Shaw
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Voices of Anxious Objects, Ken Butler performs at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY, 2019
Soul Junk Live, Electro Acoustic Music by Joshua Fried, Dafna Naftali, Hans Tammen, Milton Art Bank, 2017
Correspondences, Tibor de Nagy, New York, NY, 2017
PS1’s Backside, Chris Coffin, Kristine Robinson, Chris Walsh, Michelle Jaffé, Long Island City, NY, 2008
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2022
Arts Center Capital Region, NY, Co-lead NYSCA Immersive Art & Technology seminar with Seth Cluett
Arts Center Capital Region, NY, Critical Forum
2021
Panel Talk, Murmur/Mutter/Yell, Lara Pan moderator: Carol Parkinson, Sergio Krakowski and Ak2deru
Panelist for NYSCA Artist Creativity Grant
Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University, Visiting Artist
ArtBox DMV Podcast, Jason T. Edwards interviews Michelle Jaffé, WERA 96.7 FM, Episode #52
Arts Center Capital Region, NY, Critical Forum
2020
Dr. Jill H. Casid in conversation with Michelle Jaffé about Murmur/Mutter/Yell
Columbia University MFA, Conversation with Michelle Jaffé, Teacher Susanna Coffey
Arts Center Capital Region, NY, Critical Forum
2019
New York Studio School, In Conversation with Joy Episalla, Artist Talk, NY
Arts Center Capital Region, NY, Critical Forum
2017
Leonardo, Laser Talk, in conjunction with Creative Tech Week, LISA-Leaders in Software & Art, with Zachary Kaplan, Ursula Endlicher, NY
2016
Queens Council on the Arts, Exhibitions & Representation for Artists, Valerie McKenzie & Nico Wheadon
Stony Brook University, 50th Anniversary of Experiments in Art & Technology, cDACT
Creative Tech Week, LISA-Leaders in Software & Art, Expert Talk: My Work, NY
2015
Leonardo, Laser Talk, invited by Ellen Levy & Patricia Olynyk, New York
2013
Queens Council on the Arts, Third Space, Marta Jovanovic interviews Michelle Jaffé
2011-14
Queens Council on the Arts, Artist Leader Peer Circle & LEAP Program, New York
2010
NYFA, Ambitious Art Projects and How to Make Them Happen: Four Artists’ Stories
NYFA, 12 Artists Present, Salon by Catherine Eaton, Roger Smith Hotel, New York
QMAD at Crossing Art, A-Lab Forum: Artivism, Curator: Hector Canonge, New York
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2021
Michelle Jaffé interviews assume vivid astro focus, Hairy What, Hairy How? Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY
2019
Connie Lewallen reads from Bill Berkson's A Frank O'Hara Notebook,Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY
Ken Butler performs Voices of Anxious Objects at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY
2018
Sir Nicholas Serota in Memory of Malcom Morley
Douglas Crase reads his poetry The Revisionist, The Astropastorals
A Conversation amongst Artists Delia Brown, Inka Essenhigh, Hilary Harkness, Critic Sarah Rodriguez,
June 9, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY
Douglas Crase reads at St. Mark’s Poetry Project, May 9, New York
Heather Sheehan reads from An Unfinished Novel, excerpt For Dieter, February 20th
2017
Brice Brown of Milton Art Bank interviews Michelle Jaffé about Soul Junk, November
Michelle Jaffé interviews artist Brice Brown about his motivation to create nonprofit Milton Art Bank
Joshua Fried & Hans Tammen perform Soul Junk Live, excerpts
Shirley Jaffe, Artist Memorial at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY
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2002
Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, NY, Certificate
1995
Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, Associates-Jewelry Making
1992
New York Studio School, NY, Sculpture
1991
Sculpture Center School, NY, Stone Carving
1979
University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, BA Honours, Fine Arts and French Literature
Dissertation: Henri Michaux: Un Poete Peintre Nietzchien (A Nietzchian Poet Painter)
Artist Statement
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Artist Statement •
11/11/23
I create time-based experiential, often immersive works that prompt active listening and corporeal awareness through sculpture, sound and video installations. Since 2003 I work with sound as sculptural material to forge new neural connections. Since 2011 I have worked with vocalists, creating several 27–35-minute compositions. Simultaneously engaging mind and body produces a deeper understanding. I place sound 3-dimensionally in space, programing in SuperCollider, Reaper, Max, deploying cutting edge speaker technologies of Holosonics & Wave Field Synthesis. In my recent New Works Residency exhibition “LocaleS3” at Harvestworks/Govenor’s Island (September 1–October 29, 2023) I programmed sound in 3D virtual shapes spaced around the room. I orchestrate the score in such a way that visitors activate different components of the composition simply by moving through space. Engaging audience thusly, makes them co-composers of a non-linear work as they play the room as an instrument. I accomplish this through position tracking antennas & an app on iPhones.
As participants recognize themes that plague humanity, they become stakeholders in the complex proposition/installations I conceive & produce. I am the sculptor, librettist, composer & videographer. Each work brings sound ever more 3-dimensionally into the participant’s experience puncturing their rational and linguistic defenses.
WAPPEN FIELD (2003–2015) is a confrontational phalanx of 12 chrome plated steel helmets recruiting visitors to enter and hear a 27-minute vocal composition. Each helmet is a resonant chamber, where their dedicated speakers transform the sculptural installation into an immersive audio environment.
SOUL JUNK (2013–2019) is an immersive 3-channel video/sound installation that explores the raw emotions, power & intent conveyed & betrayed by the human voice & facial expression. In the age of the selfie, SOUL JUNK places you inside a female's mind at work, one long oppressed by a power that needs to prevail at all costs.
MURMUR/MUTTER/YELL (2019–) unveils the powerful forces at work in the dark matter of connectivity, exposing how we, the raw material of 21st century colonization, are ripe for manipulation.
GRIFTER’S Gambit (2023–) is an operatic, tragicomic audio/video installation, surrounding the audience in a multi-sensory experience. The libretto attests to archetypal behavior, satirizing foibles that bring us repeatedly into conflict. We experience the collision of personal, social & political desire; pressures that constantly jockey for power & influence.