It’s still life, Jim, but not as we know it. Mark Jenkins has been having all sorts of fun bringing this new body of work into being, and when we say body of work, we really mean it. Jenkins’ own person, as well as those of his friends, have been used as models to cast many of the sculptures that make up the Still Life collection. Created using packing tape and plastic, the disconcerting human forms now populate the Fabien Castanier Gallery in Culver City.
Jenkins’ technique enables him to fashion fully-clothed, hyper-real figures with obscured faces, staged and posed with an effect that swings from absurd to menacing to plain weird. The translation of living things to lifeless objects is just one of the ways the artist finds to mess with his audience’s heads.
Away from the gallery setting, Jenkins takes his inanimate creations out into the world, sets them up and cuts them loose, abandoning them to their uncertain fate, unsure if or how they will interact with the public, or what will ultimately become of them. This lot are safely locked up for the time being; Still Life remains on show until 3 October.
Photography, Theonepointeight
