T5 ARTIST CASE STUDY: JULIANNE SWARTZ
- Mar 13
- 3 min read
Julianne Swartz (b. 1967 New York City) is an artist known for her installation-based practice that integrates sound, sculpture, and architecture. Her practice explores how internal experiences such as time, intimacy, and perception can be translated into physical systems.
Alongside her installations, Swartz has produced photographic works such as CoPortraits, Close, and Bubble Portraits, which investigate intimacy and relational identity. These works move away from traditional portraiture, focusing instead on connection and the space between bodies. This approach reflects her broader concern with how identity is formed through relationships rather than fixed representation.
This methodology is extended in her installation Surrogate (JS), Surrogate (KRL), Surrogate (ARL) (2012), where identity is constructed through material systems rather than depicted visually. The work consists of three human-scale figures built from stacked cement blocks, each embedded with clocks that produce a continuous ticking. These figures do not function as portraits, but as constructed bodies defined by weight, repetition, and duration.
Swartz disrupts the idea that identity is stable or visually coherent. The body is translated into modular units, suggesting that subjectivity is assembled rather than inherent. The contrast between the solidity of concrete and the internal movement of time creates tension between permanence and instability. The figures appear fixed, yet are internally active, shifting the focus from appearance to experience across time.
Swartz's approach has influenced and inspired me to reconsider the use of concrete as the base of my installation Life in Pieces. Her work prompted me to see concrete not only as a structural material but as a way to more accurately reflect my body and the illness that has taken over it. By constructing the body through stacked concrete blocks, I am able to convey weight, pressure, and endurance as lived conditions rather than visual representations. The layered resin block containing my face introduces instability through misalignment and vibration, contrasting with the solidity of the base. Where Swartz embeds time through clocks, I embed neurological disruption through fragmented imagery.
Figure 6 & 7: © Julianne Swartz, Detail of Surrogate (2012), white cement, grey cement, mica, and 143 clock movements
Her work has informed my understanding that identity can be expressed through systems rather than images. In Life in Pieces, this extends into digital video, where movement and repetition further articulate instability. The body becomes distributed across material and digital forms, reflecting a condition that is ongoing and unresolved.
Julianne Swartz's practice has reinforced that identity does not need to be directly shown to be understood. Through constructed systems, it is possible to communicate internal states that are complex and difficult to define.
References:
Art Gallery of Western Australia 2016, AGWA Artist TV – Julianne Swartz, YouTube video, viewed 14 March 2026, <https://youtu.be/wr-YCuy4pf4?si=Tpc4QEif5O_dcPXK>. (Figure 8)
BOMB Magazine 2019, Sculpting the uncanny: Julianne Swartz interviewed, viewed 14 March 2026, <https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2019/01/02/sculpting-the-uncanny-julianne-swartz-interviewed>. (Figure 4)
Swartz, J n.d., Close, Julianne Swartz, viewed 14 March 2026, <https://www.julianneswartz.com/work_archive/photography/close.php>. (Figure 2)
Swartz, J n.d., CoPortraits, Julianne Swartz, viewed 14 March 2026, <https://www.julianneswartz.com/work_archive/photography/coportraits.php>. (Figure 1)
Swartz, J 2012, Surrogate (JS), Surrogate (KRL), Surrogate (ARL), Julianne Swartz, viewed 14 March 2026, <https://www.julianneswartz.com/work_archive/surrogates/surrogates.php>. (Figures 6 & 7)
