Jordan Strafer

Holly, 2023

Highlighter and ballpoint pen on onion skin paper, fused glass

11.75 in. x 14.25 in. (29 cm. x 36 cm.)

A photo of Strafer’s mother, which appeared in Newsweek coverage of the trial, has a recurring appearance in the exhibition. Her face is frozen on the screen in the sculptural installation Channel 2, a miniature TV set installed in one of the Renaissance Society’s alcoves modeled after the early 1990’s Oprah Winfrey set. She returns in a series of drawings Strafer created with everyday office materials and encased in fused glass, which are hung in display cases on three levels of the building. 

LOOPHOLE (2023) and DECADENCE (2024) are the first two chapters of a planned film trilogy set against the backdrop of a fictionalized high-profile rape trial in 1990s-era Florida. LOOPHOLE, the first chapter, focuses on the speculative romantic affair between the lead defense attorney and a juror during the trial. DECADENCE, the second chapter commissioned specifically for the exhibition, is elliptical as it incorporates events from the night of the alleged rape, and the celebration after the acquittal. Referencing the genre of erotic thrillers and televised court cases popular at the time, both videos pull from film scripts, local news coverage, reality TV, and publicly sourced courtroom documents, and are influenced in part by the artist’s mother’s role in the legal defense team in another notorious rape trial that took place in 1991.  

JORDAN STRAFER received her BFA from The New School (2016) and her MFA from Bard College (2019). Strafer has participated in group exhibitions at SculptureCenter, New York (2020); The New Museum, New York (2021); Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin (2021); and Maison Populaire, Montreuil (2024), and has had solo shows at Participant Inc, New York (2022); Heidi, Berlin (2023); and Hot Wheels, London (2024). Her first institutional solo exhibition was held in 2023 at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, centering on her video trilogy comprising PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER (2022); SOS (2021); and PEP (Process Entanglement Procedure) (2019), and her second institutional solo exhibition was held at the Secession in Vienna, premiering LOOPHOLE (2023).

Photos by Bob.