Artwork copyright Jennifer Zwick. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Jennifer Zwick. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2021.

Artwork copyright Jennifer Zwick. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2021.

Artwork copyright Jennifer Zwick. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2021.

The Dream (Touch), 2007

Jennifer Zwick
(American, born 1977)

Location: Capitol Campus Child Care Center - Maple Park, Olympia

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Jennifer Zwick’s The Dream (Touch) is part of her Constructed Narratives series of “non-linear short stories.” The photograph shows a young girl, who has the impression that her room has merged with a forest.

The series of photographs focuses on adventurous young girls in beautiful but uneasy worlds. To create these images, Zwick draws from childhood fantasies and memories and builds life-sized environments. She explains that “By pushing these scenarios to an extreme conclusion, the girls become metaphors for our hyper-real childhood selves, where remembered emotions become stronger through time.”

Zwick built the set for the image in the woods of Mount Vernon, Northwestern Washington, using her own childhood furniture. You can see the making of this artwork.

This artwork is part of a curated collection by Renee Adams for the Maple Park Capitol Campus Child Care Center in Olympia. The art selection committee wanted the art to be mainly for the children. They wanted to focus on Northwest artists from diverse backgrounds and geographies, and artworks with color and nature-inspired imagery. The Child Care Center has six classrooms, as well as outdoor classrooms and play spaces, for eighty-four children.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Department of Enterprise Services.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jennifer Zwick works in a variety of media, including large-scale installations, wearable sculptures, painting, interactive video installation, printmaking, and photographic processes. She is particularly interested in optics, symmetry, and humor. She believes that “by making art which looks fantastical but is constructed ‘in real life’, an opportunity is created for the viewer to think about what we will accept as real; about how much our brains miss when we move through the world; about what we take for granted and how much power we truly have to reshape our reality.”
Zwick studied photography, printmaking, and creative writing at the University of New Mexico, before earning a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in photography from the University of Washington in Seattle.