Jennifer Sullivan is a video artist, performer, and painter — if you’re unfamiliar with her work, the strange, affecting “Adult Movie” is a good place to start. She currently has paintings in the group show “Edge of Continuation” at Pablo’s Birthday on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and on August 14 she’ll be staging a performance, titled “JS/JS: Night Painters’ Pajama Party and Confidence-Building Seminar,” at Essex Flowers. (Sullivan will “portray a figure somewhere in between Julian Schnabel and myself,” she says. “Guests are invited to wear their pajamas for this evening of inner exploration.”) Here, the artist shares her studio playlist, including cover versions of R. Kelly and Rihanna tracks.
“Moving (Live),” Kate Bush
“There was a time when I almost only listened to Kate Bush in the studio, and I’ve used her music in a video and made several paintings of her as well. Her music is almost absurdly emotional, and that is the mindset I like to be in when I am painting, really fluid and uninhibited. Also, I was a member of the Kate Bush Dance Troupe for about five years, but have now retired from the group.”
Madonna’s “Blond Ambition” Tour
“When I was a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, I got into listening to full Madonna concerts in the studio. It’s a seven-month residency in Provincetown, Massachusetts, so I had a lot of time on my hands. Madonna has been an inspiration since childhood; she’s a great role model for expressing yourself, pro-sex feminism, and chutzpah. I actually saw the Blond Ambition tour live at the Meadowlands when I was in seventh grade, accompanied by my father. Watching the faux masturbation scene with him was probably in the top five awkward moments of my adolescence! But it was an amazing show, and she was at the height of her powers.”
“Money, Power, and Glory,” Lana del Rey
“My recent emo music of choice while painting. I hadn’t been into her before but this new album really got me hooked. It’s like a mix between Billy Holiday and Lindsey Lohan. She seems completely shameless, a femme fatale for our times. I think the music relates to camp as well, which is something I’ve been exploring in my video work. It has to do with being overly honest or sincere. I’ve been thinking about Sontag’s essay again recently. I like this line particularly: ‘Camp taste is a kind of love, love for human nature. It relishes, rather than judges, the little triumphs and awkward intensities of ‘character.’”
“You Called Me Jacky,” Pipilotti Rist (music by Kevin Coyne)
“Rist has been a big inspiration, a video artist who uses music, sensuality, and her own body in her work. There’s a couple of iconic pieces in which she covers pop songs, both of which I love as well, but this one is a little less known I think, and is moving in a bittersweet way. I like the simplicity of it, the way she layers beautiful but ordinary video of train cars and skies over a very casual lip-sync performance of this song. I love that she leaves in the mistakes too. It’s an important component.”
“This Bitter Earth,” Dinah Washington, (from the 1977 film “Killer of Sheep” by Charles Burnett)
“I was recently re-watching this amazing scene from ‘Killer of Sheep.’ It’s one of my favorite movies and the specific music he chose is a really important element. The film was made while he was a student at UCLA for only $10,000. It was critically acclaimed but never got wider distribution because he couldn't afford the rights to the music, though eventually he got them 30 years later (they cost $150,000!). I’ve been watching Ken Burn’s ‘Jazz’ documentary series lately too, and I think the power of this scene relates to a Branford Marsalis quote about the blues that really struck me: ‘The blues is about sculpting meaning in a situation that seems to defy your finding meaning in it… The fact that you recognize that which pains you is a very freeing and liberating experience… When I hear the blues, the blues makes me smile.’ This transformative process is something I strive for in my work as well.”
“Stay,” cover of Rihanna song by Jennifer Sullivan
“Ignition,” cover of R. Kelly song by Jennifer Sullivan
“I’ve been making my own pop covers for many years now. Sometimes they become a part of videos and performances. At times I’ve described my whole work process as a kind of karaoke collage, combining appropriated sources and re-embodying them or remaking them with my own voice. I try to do my covers to the best of my ability, but part of what I’m interested in about them, is that it throws the differences between myself and the original into a strong contrast. There’s something very direct about just singing a song and trying to express the feeling of it that is very satisfying.”
