Jen Urso
Magnified Mundane Magnificent
On display November 6–15, 2020
Phoenix, Arizona
Every inch and millimeter of our world is full of diverse, complex material that survives despite our tending to it. Magnified Mundane Magnificent reveals a world of complexity in the unfeatured and uncelebrated, yet resilient and tenacious, that exist in overlooked places embedded in our periphery.
Taking samples of organic matter from the alley just north of the intersection of 5th Avenue and Stetson Avenue in Old Town Scottsdale, Jen Urso investigated each at multiple magnification levels to create a series of drawings. When a passerby opens the CanalConvergence channel in the Hoverlay augmented reality app and points it at the sample area, they see an expanded, layered version of what was discovered there, along with information about the samples.
Magnified Mundane Magnificent allows participants to reconnect with their urban environment, using augmented reality as a path to discovery and revealing the universal infinite complexity around them. Intricate line drawings and the obsessiveness and care of observing our overlooked environment allows people to wonder about what else they might be missing.
How to Access AR at Canal Convergence
Before visiting the event, access your mobile device’s app store, download the Hoverlay app, and follow instructions to install the Hoverlay camera browser app on your mobile device. Search for the CanalConvergence channel to unlock these experiences at home, or look for QR codes on signs or ground stickers at the Scottsdale Waterfront and around Old Town Scottsdale. Please note: the app requires an augmented reality-capable device running iOS 13 or later or Android 7.0 or later.
Virtual Viewing
Biography
Jen Urso is a multidisciplinary artist creating interventions, performance, writing, and drawings that attempt to undo the constructs expected to be necessary to take part in an artwork. In a public setting, she creates stumbled-on moments of focus with ephemeral materials or performance. In a gallery setting that already encourages hyper-awareness, she creates an up-closeness or near invisibility so the work can be ignored or experienced intimately. Her work typically takes place in the public via occupation and intense observation.
Urso is a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant recipient and has exhibited and performed across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. She has curated exhibits, published reviews and writing, and published a book the things in between in 2011. Urso is a passionate runner, gardener, reader, thinker, and questioner. She received a bachelor of fine arts in art from Carnegie Mellon University and currently lives and works in Phoenix.