TATLIN NEWS #52

Эфемерные скульптуры Марка Дженкинса| фото предоставлены художником | автор Арсений Сергеев

разили скульптуры без пьедестала, напомина- ющие по конструкции куклы-неваляшки, уже изначально подразумевающие свои переме- щения, интерактивность зрителей и гибкость в отношениях с окружающим пространством. Ему очень понравилось то, что скульптуры мо- гут свободно образовывать различные кон- фигурации, объединяться в любые скульптур- ные группы. Узнаваемость инсталляций Дженкинса создается благодаря «фирменному» материа- лу – прозрачной упаковочной ленте, из кото- рой создано большинство его скульптур. «Делать слепки из предметов, используя скотч, – этот трюк я открыл, будучи ребен- ком, – говорит художник в своем интервью порталу Morning News, – это было во втором или третьем классе. Я обмотал карандаш лип- кой лентой. Учитель сказал мне тогда что-то вроде «зачем ты тратишь ленту впустую?», и я оставил это занятие приблизительно лет на 20. Я начал делать это опять, когда препода-

В октябре этого года агентство «АртПолити- ка» и CEC Artslink показывают в Екатеринбур- ге и Москве (в рамках параллельной програм- мы 3-й Московской биеннале) уличные скуль- птурные инсталляции известного художника из США Марка Дженкинса (Mark Jenkins). Когда сталкиваешься со скульптурами Марка Дженкинса, вот что приходит на ум: эфемерность, потеря телесности, исчезающее присутствие или проявленное отсутствие, внеперсональная идентичность, исчезнове- ние и растворение, лишенное негативных от- тенков, как переход в ангелическую форму. И проницаемость… Или проницательность? И прозрачность… Или призрачность? И снова прозрачность, прозрачность, прозрачность… Марк Дженкинс никогда не планировал стать художником. Учился на геолога, играл на саксофоне фанк- и рэпэлектронику. Ин- терес к изобразительному искусству возник у него уже после окончания университета. На выставке Хуана Муньеса в 2001 году его по-

Mark Jenkins’ Ephemeral Sculptures | photos provided by artist | text by Arseniy Sergeev The ArtPolitika Agency and CEC Artslink will present outdoor sculpture installations of a well-known American artist Mark Jenkins in Moscow and Yekaterinburg this coming October as a part of the simultaneously held 3rd Moscow Biennale. When one encounters sculptures by Mark Jenkins, the follow- ing springs to mind: evanescence, loss of physicality, vanish- ing presence or demonstrated absence, extra-personal identi- ty, disappearance and dissolution devoid of negative connota- tions like a transition to angelic form. And permeability… Or is it penetration? And transparency... Or is it delusiveness? And transparency again, and again, and again… Mark Jenkins never planned to become an artist. He studied geology and played electronic funk and rap. Not until after his graduation did he become interested in visual arts. At the exhi- bition of Juan Mu ñ oz’ works in 2001 he was strongly impressed by sculptures without bases, designs of which reminded of wee- ble toys, which by default implied movement, interactivity of viewers and flexible relations with their surroundings. He liked it that sculptures could form various arrangements without any restraint and be combined into various sculptural groups. Jenkins’ installations are easy to recognize thanks to his sig- nature material – transparent packing tape he used to create most of his sculptures. «Making tape casts of objects is a trick I figured out when I was a kid. It must have been in second or third grade that I cast a pencil in class. The teacher told me something like “don’t waste tape” and I kind of left it at that until 20 or so years later. Right then, I was teaching English in Rio de Janeiro and had a lot of downtime between classes. One afternoon I’d made a large tin- foil ball, just to have something to play catch with while lying on the sofa. I decided to make a second one out of tape, but there wasn’t enough left on the roll to do it. The trick I’d figured out as a kid popped back into my head, and I cast the tinfoil ball with the tape. I was impressed with the results and decided to do a cof- fee pot. A couple months later, I’d gone through several hundred rolls, casting everything in my flat, including myself. The walls were thin in my apartment building, and my neighbors weren’t too thrilled at the sounds of packing tape spinning off the roll all night and day. One annoyed neighbor threw mud at my clothes drying on the window ledge, but I couldn’t be stopped». The street sculptor Mark Jenkins considers packing tape to be natural material, just like the woods sculptor Andy Goldswor- thy treated leaves and tree trunks. The city is a second nature, plastic, the same sculptural material produced by this second nature and found by the author. Transparency, fragility, eva- nescence, mobility – its kinship with ice, air and water – are the qualities of clear packing tape, which the artist makes use of in his installations. «I like transparence of tape, Jenkins says. I think the clear tape medium might steer me in this direction sometimes. My projects are infantile; they have strong connection with child- hood and children impressions. That’s why I like best of all to make installations with children, lollipops and puppies. These are a good vein to explore for public art, too, just because it makes a lot of people, including kids, smile». The Storker Project is Mark’s most touching installation fea- turing transparent figures of babies. Literal vitality of these an- gelic characters develops the subject of putti of Baroque art to the extreme – finally there is clear plastic tape, the material that ensures that the nature of these mythological creatures is adequately reproduced. On the one hand, this work is play, while on the other hand it causes constant anxiety.

ТАТLIN news 4|52|75  2009  45