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Jana Rumberger

Jana Rumberger

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Data

I take statistics I find online and translate them to drawings in space, made with lines of thread.

When I started making this work in 2016, I was living in San Francisco. I was active in the art community and went to gallery openings a few times a week.

At every opening there was talk about the high rents and cost of living. I started thinking about how the global monetary system works, and the foundations of wealth.

Numbers tell stories like photographs do. We can distort numbers the same way we distort photos.

For example, in Home Sale Prices by Year 1971-2015, Median San Francisco, CA, Median California, Median United States, a real estate pitch is also a picture of the high cost of property in the Bay Area.   

We are living in divisive times. It’s easy to forget how easy it is to manipulate data when we are using it to make a point or defend an argument.

These installations are tricky because at first glance they are simple abstract objects, just color and light. I am excited by the second read, where the abstraction and factual information play off each other, in that back and forth.

Home Sale Prices by Year 1971-2015, Median San Francisco, CA, Median California, Median United States

Home Sale Prices By Year 1971-2015, Median San Francisco, CA, Median California, Median United States art by Jana Rumberger

This site-specific installation at State was also created in miniature, you can see it here. Many pieces of Data exist only in miniature form.

Homeless housing inventory, Permanent supportive housing, year-round emergency beds, and transitional housing, United States and Multnomah County, 2005-2014 

  • Homeless housing inventory, Permanent supportive housing, year-round emergency beds, and transitional housing, United States and Multnomah County, 2005-2014 art by jana rumberger

This was the first site-specific installation at Red&Co. and it speaks to the homeless problems in Portland, OR .

On the left: Homeless housing inventory, Permanent supportive housing, year-round emergency beds, and transitional housing, United States, 2005-2014, 2019

On the right: Homeless housing inventory, Permanent supportive housing, year-round emergency beds, and transitional housing, Multnomah County, 2005-2014, 2019

In this installation, the data reveals a difference in housing priorities that makes the homeless more visible in the Portland area. At the same time, it underlines the continuing challenges of homelessness across the country.

Ice sheet contribution to sea level, Antarctica, Greenland and Combined, 1992-2012

  • Detail, Ice sheet contribution to sea level, Antarctica, Greenland and Combined

This site-specific installation was part of the exhibit Wild at Root Division. From the curator Marisa Argona, “As the realities of human impact on our global ecosystems are escalating, this show points to the undeniable truths of our connectedness to everything living and our increasingly mediated experience of nature.”


Home Sale Prices By Year 1971-2015, Median San Francisco, CA, Median California, Median United States art by Jana Rumberger
Home Sale Prices By Year 1971-2015, Median San Francisco, CA, Median California, Median United States,
Crochet thread, screw eyes, felt, 10 x 14 x 8 ft, 2017
Homeless housing inventory, Permanent supportive housing, year-round emergency beds, and transitional housing, United States and Multnomah County, 2005-2014  art by jana rumberger
Homeless housing inventory, Permanent supportive housing, year-round emergency beds, and transitional housing, United States and Multnomah County, 2005-2014 
Crochet thread, screw eyes, 7 x 6 x 2.5 ft, 2019
Ice sheet contribution to sea level, Antarctica, Greenland and Combined, 1992-2012 art by jana rumberger
Ice sheet contribution to sea level, Antarctica, Greenland and Combined, 1992-2012, Crochet thread and screw eyes, 65 x 48 x 48 in, 2017
Change in Public and Private Tuition, Changes in Early Tuition Salary and Minimum Wage, 1986-2016 art jana rumberger
Change in Public and Private Tuition, Changes in Early Tuition Salary and Minimum Wage, 1986-2016
Thread, acrylic, and found wood on birch panel, 12 x 16 in, 2019
Marginal Tax Rate, Top 1% and Bottom 99% Income Growth 1913-2005; Piketty and Saez, Historical Marginal Tax Rates for Highest and Lowest Wage Earners 1910-2012; Wikipedia, Tax Revenues Do Not Correlate With Tax Rates 1950-2005; Heritage Foundation art jana rumberger
Marginal Tax Rate, Top 1% and Bottom 99% Income Growth 1913-2005; Piketty and Saez, Historical Marginal Tax Rates for Highest and Lowest Wage Earners 1910-2012; Wikipedia, Tax Revenues Do Not Correlate With Tax Rates 1950-2005; Heritage Foundation
Wood, canvas, crochet thread, gesso, 57 x 42 x 18 in, 2017

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