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.The Surreal Art of an Urban Prankster The Huffington Post, April 16, 2012 His installations often draw the attention of the police.Testing the Limits: Artist's project misunderstood right off the bat, but it drew attention to art Winston-Salem Journal, October 11, 2009Police remove another piece of artist's work Winston-Salem Journal, October 15, 2009Artist's mannequin awaits permission to startle people Winston-Salem Journal, November 3, 2009 His work has been described as whimsical, macabre, shocking and situationist. Jenkins cites Juan Muñoz as his initial inspiration.Let No Man Scare You The Morning News, March 30, 2006The Surreal Art of an Urban Prankster The Huffington Post, April 16, 2012

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

Jenkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia, but first began experimenting with tapeEssentials: What Tapes to Use for Art and Conservation as a casting medium for creating sculpture in 2003 while living in Rio de Janeiro. Wrapping the tape in reverse and then resealing it, he was able to make casts of objects including himself. One of his first street projects was a series of clear tape self-casts that he installed on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Jenkins became immediately interested in the reactions of the people and considered his installation as much a social experiment as an art project.Let No Man Scare You The Morning News, March 30, 2006

In 2004 he moved back to Washington DC and in 2005 he began working with Sandra Fernandez on the Storker Project, a series in which clear casts of toy babies are installed in different cities to interact with their surrounding environment.Let No Man Scare You The Morning News, March 30, 2006 Jenkins and Fernandez continued to create other installations using tape animals--dogs playing in litter, giraffes nibbling plastic bags from trees, and ducks swimming in gutters. Other outdoor projects which explore culture jamming include Meterpops, Traffic-Go-Round, and Signs of Spring.Mark Jenkins's Traffic-Go-Round BoingBoing, March 14, 2006Signs of Spring Laughing Squid, March 31, 2008

In 2006 Jenkins began the Embed Series. The tape casts were filled with newspaper and cement and dressed to create hyper realistic sculptural duplicates of himself and Fernandez. These new lifelike sculpture installations created confusion causing some passers-by to make calls to 911 which caused police and sometimes rescue units to arrive on his "stage".That's Mark Jenkins All Over The Washington Post, July 23, 2006A Minute With: Street artist Mark Jenkins Reuters, February 1, 2012

In 2008, Jenkins collaborated with Greenpeace on an awareness campaign, Plight of the Polar Bears, to draw attention to the melting Arctic ice caps. Jenkins created realistic figures appearing to be homeless people but with plush polar bear heads. The installations resulted in bomb squads being deployed to destroy the works subsequently creating controversy over the regulation of public space in the post 9/11 era. September Homeless Polar Bears Ask for Change The Huffington Post, September 17, 2008Mark Jenkins homeless polar bear prank BoingBoing, September 30, 2008

In 2018 Jenkins and his collaborator Sandra Fernandez, at the instigation of the charity 'CALM' (Campaign Against Living Miserably) created Project84 comprising life-size statues of 84 men on top of the ITV buildings at Southbank in London, England. It aimed to highlight the fact that, in the United Kingdom, an average 84 men die by suicide each week.. Each of the statues represented a specific, named individual who died by suicide.

Jenkins has participated in public art events Interferencia (Barcelona, 2008), BELEF (Belgrade, 2009), Dublin Contemporary 2011, Inside Out (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, 2009), Living Layers (Rome, 2012), Les Vraisemblables (Nuit Blanche, Paris, 2014), Passages Insolites (Ex Muro, Quebec City 2021)PASSAGES INSOLITES 8th edition Embed Bodies (Un Été au Havre, Le Havre, 2022). Un Été au Havre. Les personnages de Mark Jenkins fascinent autant qu'ils dérangent Some of these permission-based installations still resulted in removal by police after 911 calls.

Indoors, Jenkins has exhibited internationally in galleries and museums, and he continues his Embed Series in public settings such as cafeterias, schools and building lobbies. Shows include Glazed Paradise at Diesel Gallery (Tokyo, 2008),Mark Jenkins and Miho Kinomura: Glazed Paradise The Japan Times, June 19, 2008 Meaning is Overrated at Carmichael Gallery (Los Angeles, 2009), Terrible Horrible at Ruttkowski;68 Gallery (Cologne, 2014), Moment of Impact at Lazarides Gallery (London, 2015), Remix at L'Arsenal (Montreal, 2016), BRD SHT at Magda Danysz Gallery (Paris, 2018).

In 2022, Jenkins was commissioned by Steve Lazarides to make a hyperrealistic sculpture of a woman passed out in a bowl of soup for his gallery, which subsequently resulted in police breaking down the gallery doors in a rescue attempt.

Museum shows include Recordings at Taubman Museum of Art (Roanoke,VA 2008), Ex Situ at Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2009), Perm Museum of Contemporary Art (PERMM) (Perm, 2009), Street and Studio at Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna, 2010), and WE ARE [still] HERE at Petit Palais (Paris, 2026), . .

Commercially Mark Jenkins collaborated with luxury fashion house Balenciaga to create hyperrealistic installations for high-profile store openings and collection launches Balenciaga including a portrait of the creative director Demna Gvasalia for “Balenciaga by Demna.”

In addition Jenkins has done film projects for the French Red Cross and Discovery Channel.

Publications Publication by Jenkins The Urban Theater: Mark Jenkins (2012)

Publications with contributions by Jenkins Hidden Track: How Visual Culture Is Going Places (2007) Tactile: High Touch Visuals (2007) Street World: Urban Art and Culture from Five Continents (2007) Outsiders: Art by People (2008) Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution (2008) Untitled II. The Beautiful Renaissance: Street Art and Graffiti (2009) Modart No. 01: Forget Art: In Order to Feel It (2010) Urban Interventions: Personal Projects in Public Places (2010) Beyond the Street: The 100 Leading Figures in Urban Art (2010) The Art of Rebellion #3 (2010) Street Art Cookbook: A Guide to Techniques and Materials (2011) Art & Agenda: Political Art and Activism (2011) Walls & Frames: Fine Art from the Streets (2011) Trespass: A History Of Uncommissioned Urban Art (2011)

References

External links

Instagram account Jenkins' website tapesculpture.org Mark Jenkins' tape sculpture tutorial Mark Jenkins: Tic Tac Toe (Positive-Propaganda Projects in Munich, 2013) Mark Jenkins: Holding Cell (Ruttkowski;68 video, 2012) Mark Jenkins: Go Figure! (Gestalten video, 2011) Tape Man (Discovery Channel film, 2008) Reuters video feature (2006) Orange Houses and Tape Babies: Temporary and Nebulous Art in Urban Spaces (academic essay) The Art of Making People Mad in 8 Seconds (or Less) (2024)