Jordan Strafer

Jordan Strafer is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York, whose primary medium is video. Her work revolves around stories of herself and her family, while also relating to a world that reflects the complex nature of racial identity, gender, sexuality, class, and ‘Americanism.’ Situations that often seem absurd redirect the focus from the plot to our own way of seeing and—through their clearly staged and alienated form—allow a critical stance towards a society defined by questionable moral ideas and injustice. For her exhibition at the Renaissance Society, the artist is producing the second chapter of a larger film project that deals with a romantic affair between a defense attorney and a juror during a nationally publicized rape trial in the United States in the 1990s. Rather than reenacting the trial, her new film focuses on the affair as a potential loophole in the justice system. Strafer depicts the loss of any structure and order and exposes the abuse of power, greed, and corruption that underlay the act of sexual violence. The film references the genre of the erotic thriller, which was popular at the time, and juxtaposes the deeply ambivalent feelings of fear and desire. 

Curated by Myriam Ben Salah.