Jennifer Pastor: The Perfect Ride

by Jan Tumlir

Jennifer Pastor (b. 1966) reinterprets common yet curiously unexpected subjects in her sculpture and drawings, which reflect influences as varied as Claes Oldenburg and pop cultural phenomena. Accompanying an exhibition at the Whitney Museum, this book explores Pastor's installation The Perfect Ride, which comprises a large sculpture inspired by the Hoover Dam; a sculptural rendering of the human ear; and a line-drawn animation of a cowboy on a bucking bull.

Pastor's style lies somewhere between kitsch and Pop art, but without the ironic intention. The products of meticulous research and painstaking craftsmanship, her pieces evoke an improbable sense of enchantment, relating both to the physical world and the surreal world of dreams. Jennifer The Perfect Ride sheds new light on the work of this intriguing young artist. AUTHOR Jan Tumlir is an independent curator and writer for Art Forum, Artweek, Art Issues, LA Weekly, and Frieze, among other publications. Debra Singer, the curator of the exhibition, is executive director and chief curator of the Kitchen in New York, and a founding editor of Cabinet magazine.

52 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005