Breathless #3

Building on the legacies of Minimalist Art, Jones explores art history and African American history in her visual and sound-based practice. She explains, “There are social and political ramifications to rejecting ‘subject’ and embracing ‘object’—as an African American woman, much more is at stake. Minimalism becomes a radical gesture empowering a refusal to sell my narrative or bodies.”

Jones is known for installations that appear to be minimalist paintings but are in fact acoustic panels that play excerpts of performances by famous jazz musicians. By contrast, this silent drawing is composed of polyester film from a cassette tape, highlighting the materiality of an obsolescent medium.