On First Friday, February 6, the Montana Innocence Project’s work will be explored through a new immersive art exhibit by Missoula artist Aaron Jennings, presented through Torrents at Headwaters Foundation’s Confluence Center.
Through rotating exhibits, Torrents invites artists to engage with pressing social issues and the organizations working within them. We’re honored to have MTIP’s work examined in a venue that celebrates both artistic expression and collective action.
Jennings, who has lived and worked in Missoula for over 20 years, brings a multidisciplinary background to the project.
“I’m a musician and a songwriter,” Aaron said. “I am a printmaker, and I’m also what you would call a vinyl artist… one of the big focuses of my work is I operate some 1940s recording lathes that were used to cut records for the broadcast industry and the recording industry before tape. A lot of things I do explore kind of alternative materials or different things you can do with what you would initially look at and think of as a record.”
Jennings’ connection to MTIP grew out of his work with Open AIR Montana and conversations with MTIP Executive Director Amy Sings In The Timber.
“I got exposed to some of the work that the Montana Innocence Project is doing just really through her (Amy’s) passionate advocacy, and it got me interested in the work that everyone was doing,” Aaron said.
What began as an idea for a single piece grew into a larger exhibition.
“I got fixated on one piece in particular that I wanted to make for the Montana Innocence Project, and over time that has kind of blossomed into a larger art show,” Aaron said.
The exhibit centers on interactive, audio-based installations designed to immerse visitors in the realities of injustice and its human impact.
“My focus is mostly on interactive audio pieces that people are going to walk up to… they’ll play records, they’ll be hearing audio that I’ve prepared, and that’s hopefully going to give them kind of a glimpse into the world that not only the people at the Montana Innocence Project are in all the time, but hopefully kind of give a little bit of scale and context to the experience of the clients that you guys work with,” Aaron said.
One of the central installations features a restored 1959 Seeburg 1000 background music system jukebox, originally used in Black Eagle, Montana.
“It’s an automated turntable… I’ve prepared a thousand minutes of audio that, once this is turned on, it just needs no further attention and continuously plays whether or not somebody’s in the room,” Aaron said.
That piece focuses on the case of Bernard Pease and the scale of unjust incarceration.
“It’s hard to hold the scale that these stories really encompass… there’s the scale of the time of just having this, of knowing that you’re innocent and being in there. But then there’s also his family on the outside and all these other people in his community. It’s like the perseverance of telling the same story for decades and just waiting for people to listen.”
That perseverance — and the overwhelming weight of waiting for justice — became one of Jennings’ central takeaways as he worked through interviews and case materials connected to Montana Innocence Project cases.
Rather than asking viewers of the exhibit to simply learn about unjust convictions, Jennings wanted the exhibit to translate that experience of waiting into something people could physically and emotionally feel.
“I keep coming back to just how overwhelming it [unjust conviction] is,” Aaron said. “One of the fun things I’m going to try to incorporate into the installation pieces is kind of forcing people to interact with these stories physically.”
Working on the exhibit and engaging with stories of injustice has left Aaron with personal takeaways about the human impact of the criminal legal system.
“The thing that I’m going to be taking away from this is like, there are these dehumanizing aspects to the justice system, even the way we talk about it is the justice system,” Aaron said. “It’s like, these are people. … There’s all this pressure to not tell your story or to not be seen as a multi-dimensional person, but to just fit in this box and get processed and do your time, and to not be a problem. We have to create a space to have a human conversation about these things.”
We hope you’ll join us in engaging with these ideas on First Friday. In addition to Jennings’ installations, the exhibit will feature work by contributing artists, including:
Christine Martin
Patricia Thornton
Tim Thornton
Lauren Norby
Crystal McCallie
Leland Buck
Ladypajama
K-Rad
D.L. Johnson
Opening Night
February 6
5:00–8:00 PM
Confluence Center, Missoula
Opening night will include the exhibit alongside opportunities to engage with the artist and members of the MTIP community. An after-party with music by local punk band Seditious Activity will follow from 8:00–10:00 PM.
Closing Ceremony & MTIP Fundraiser
February 27
5:00–7:00 PM
Confluence Center, Missoula
The exhibit will remain on view through the end of February and close with a gallery talk where attendees will hear more in-depth reflections from MTIP Executive Director Amy Sings In The Timber and from Aaron. The event will also serve as a fundraiser benefiting MTIP’s work.
We hope you’ll join us to experience art that invites deeper reflection on injustice, accountability, and the human stories behind MTIP’s work. If you are unable to attend but still wish to support our work and celebrate this exhibit, click here to make a gift.
Aaron Jennings has been an artist living in Missoula for over 20 years, working primarily as a singer and songwriter. In 2022, with the help of a grant from the Montana Arts Council, he began pursuing Recording Lathes and “Vinyl Art” as a medium. Using 1940’s record-cutting machines and experimental techniques, Aaron makes art in the form of handmade records.
With a focus on cultural archival and field recordings, Aaron has made records in collaboration with Open AIR MT, The Weiser Friends of the Fiddle, Montana Actors Theatre, and the Zootown Arts Community Center, as well as musical releases with dozens of artists from Alaska to New Orleans.