Mark jenkins street artist biography
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"For me, a work of art must first and foremost be a question." A question Mark Jenkins likes to ask passers-by by staging his sculptures in public spaces. With him, the street is never approached only as a place of exhibition but also always as a space allowing to stage events.
Initiated in 2003, his work is at the same time sculpture, installation, performance and social experimentation. As the artist himself confesses, “I wanted to bring chaos into people's daily routine, generate tension, and see their reactions. I wanted passers-by to lift their heads off their mobiles and reconnect with real life."
Having realized that a sculpture was not only an inert object, however artistic it may be, but that this object could modify the space which surrounds it and interact with the spectators, the artist creates ‘human’ sculptures of a striking realism, dressed in clothes and wearing wigs. These characters evoke typically urban figures, banal enough to
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Mark Jenkins (artist)
American artist (born 1970)
Mark Jenkins (born October 7, 1970) is an American artist who makes sculptural street installations. Jenkins' practice of street art is to use the "street as a stage" where his sculptures interact with the surrounding environment including passersby who unknowingly become actors.[1] His installations often draw the attention of the police.[2][3][4] His work has been described as whimsical, macabre, shocking and situationist.[5] Jenkins cites Juan Muñoz as his initial inspiration.[6][7]
In addition to creating art, he also teaches his sculpture techniques and installation practices through workshops. He currently lives in Washington, DC.
Life and career
[edit]Jenkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia, but first began experimenting with tape [8] as a casting medium for creating sculpture in 2003 while living in Rio de Janeiro. Wrapping the ta
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Mark Jenkins: Outsiders
Through the exhibition "Outsiders", Jenkins gives shape to his sculptures whose attitude and movement never cease to amaze by their genuine humanization, thus breaking the monotony of daglig life. He presents his unexpected sculptures, which are the source of his international reputation: life-size silhouettes camouflaged beneath their hoods, which he dresses in ordinary clothes. Sitting, standing, lying down, hanging, these characters are at the center of striking scenes taking place in the Parisian space of the Danysz Gallery.
Since the early 2000s, Mark Jenkins has been creating realistic human sculptures that he installs in public spaces. Anonymous figures of men and women, often lonely, put in unusual places or positions that inevitably attract attention. “Not giving them a facial identity allows me to represent more than an individual. So they have a wider spectrum and a symbolical effect,” explains Mark Jenkins.
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