Mark Jenkins
Mark Jenkins (born 1970 in Alexandria, Virginia ) is an American artist most widely known for the street installations he creates using box sealing tape. In addition to creating art, he also teaches his sculpture techniques through workshops in cities he visits. He currently lives in Washington, DC.
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[edit] Projects
Jenkins' first street project was a series of clear tape casts made from his body that he installed on the streets in Rio de Janeiro (2003). In 2005 he began working with Sandra Fernandez on the Storker Project, a series where tape "babies" are "dropped" in different cities. [1] In 2006 Jenkins began dressing his casts to create hyper realistic sculptures. (Embed Series). Other outdoor projects include Meterpops (2005), Traffic-Go-Round (2007)[2], and Flowersigns (2007). He collaborated with Greenpeace in 2008 with the "Plight of the Polar Bears" street installation.
Jenkins refers to his work collectively as the Glazed Paradise and hosts a website (glazedparadise.com) made up of digital collages of his street characters extracted into surreal environments.
Indoors Jenkins has shown with Carmichael Gallery (LA) and Lazarides Gallery (UK) and has had solo shows in cities including Tokyo, Vienna, NYC, LA, and London. He has participated in group shows including Dublin Contemporary 2011, Kusthalle Wien "Street and Studio", Kunsthalle Orebro "Subglob 2" and Taubman Museum "Recordings".
He has held workshops in cities including Moscow, St Petersburg, Belgrade, Tashkent, Seoul, and Prato.
[edit] Philosophy
Jenkins' practice of street art is to use the "street as a stage" where passersby become actors. Many of his installations have resulted in intervention by the authorities whom he also regards as actors. Most of his early outdoor works were non-commissioned.
Jenkins said the following about the illegal aspects of street art during an interview with art critic Brian Sherwin, "There is opposition, and risk, but I think that just shows that street art is the sort of frontier where the leading edge really does have to chew through the ice. And it's good for people to remember public space is a battleground, with the government, advertisers and artists all mixing and mashing, and even now the strange cross-pollination taking place as street artists sometimes become brands, and brands camouflaging as street art creating complex hybrids or impersonators. I think it's understanding the strangeness of the playing field where you'll realize that painting street artists, writers, as the bad guys is a shallow view. As for the old bronzes, I really don't see them as part of what's going on in the dialogue unless addressed by a new intervention. “[3]
[edit] Books
- The Urban Theater (Gestalen)
- Glazed Paradise (ROJO)
- Outcasts (Lazarides Gallery)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Terrifying sculptures by Mark Jenkins
- Jenkins website
- tapesculpture.org Jenkins tape-casting tutorial
- Gestalten (video interview 2011)
- NPR (radio interview 2011)
- Reuters (video interview 2006)
- The Morning News (interview 2005)
- Washington Post (feature 2006)
- Jenkins/Greenpeace collaboration (article/video 2007)
