BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
“Wanna taste these ramen noodles? They’re really good,” says the woman leaning forward to offer you a fork full of the Japanese food, dangling it over your head.
What?
Mark Jenkins. “Ramen Noodle”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
The ultimate public still life sculptor and installation artist, Mark Jenkins has just positioned this woman on a lamp post in Łódź, Poland as part of Michał Bieżyński’s ongoing curation of his city’s public space.
Jenkins continues to refine his true-to-life interactions, with realistic, if troubling and surreal, figures frozen mid-action. He casts his own body and sometimes others’ bodies, using packing tape and plastic wrap, and then dresses them in unremarkable clothing that is conventional to the culture and environment.
Mark Jenkins. “Ramen Noodle”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
This is a kind of human taxidermy, if you will, with bizarre scenarios invoked by the presence of the life-like figure in public space, implicating passersby into the scene before they even realize it.
Here we have six new installations from Jenkins in and around the city center, throwing people off their daily rhythm. They chuckle uncomfortably and point or snap a photo, slightly picking up the pace when walking by.
Mark Jenkins. “Ab Cruncher”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
Mark Jenkins. “Holy Man”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
Mark Jenkins. “Holy Man”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
Mark Jenkins. “Rapunzel”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
Mark Jenkins. “Rapunzel”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
Mark Jenkins. “Back Stretcher”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
Mark Jenkins. “Flower Girl”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)
Artist: Mark Jenkins
Location: Piotrkowska street, Łódz, Poland
Curator: Michał Bieżyński @lodzmurals
Organizer: Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń @lodzkiecentrumwydarzen
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