Artist: Jillian Mayer
Title: Very Moving
Site-specific installation, Española Way, Spring 2023
The City Miami of Miami Beach is pleased to present Very Moving, a newly-commissioned installation by Miami-based artist Jillian Mayer. Very Moving is the second installment of Elevate Española, a public art program launched by the city in 2022 that biannually commissions contemporary artists to create installations suspended in midair over the East Corridor of Española Way, located between Washington and Collins avenues.
Jillian Mayer’s work explores how technology affects our lives, bodies, and identities by processing how our physical world and selves are impacted by a digital landscape. Above Española Way, Very Moving will feature a system of mobiles to create a kinetic sculpture and painting installation that is representative of our increasingly fractional rapid-fire intake of online images. A grid of painted abstract metal shapes perpetually twirl in the work, seemingly on the verge of collision but saved by their synchronization. The viewer is never able to see the entire choreography of the piece at once. Mayer states that “the movement of the artwork is the art piece.”
Very Moving is the second installment of Elevate Española as a dedicated art installation site, and the fourth installation to be presented over Española Way. In 2021, Carlos Betancourt presented a hanging installation titled “Milagros!” on the West Corridor of Española Way and simultaneously, the art collective FriendsWithYou presented “Little Cloud Sky,” consisting of eight inflatable cloud sculptures, hanging over the East Corridor of Española Way. In November 2022, Edouard Duval-Carrié debuted the inaugural installation of Elevate Española titled “Trapeze Contortionists”. Commissions at the site will continue biannually, with a fifth installment by Assume Vivid Astro Focus expected to be unveiled during Art Week Miami Beach 2023.
Jillian Mayer is an artist and filmmaker living and working in Miami, Florida. Through videos, sculptures, online experiences, photography, performances, and installations, Mayer’s work explores how technology affects our lives, bodies, and identities. Mayer was born in Miami and studied at Florida International University. She has presented work in solo and group exhibitions widely, and has exhibited, screened films, and performed at institutions including MoMA PS1 MoMA, and the Guggenheim Museum. Recent commissions include a full-room installation of large-scale works for Frieze Los Angeles 2022 and a hanging glass and metal sculpture for Art in Public Places at the Port of Miami for Virgin Voyages. Mayer is a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s New Frontiers Lab and New Narratives on Climate Change Lab. She is represented by David Castillo Gallery. For the creation of Very Moving, Mayer had the technical support of MGG Studios, LLC and VS Coatings.
