American artist Mark Jenkins' project presented in Baku
By Nigar Orujova
YARAT Contemporary Art Space, an organization promoting Azerbaijani modern art worldwide, presented "MANIMALS" project of American artist Mark Jenkins within the framework of Participate Baku Public Art Festival, on the Fountain Square in downtown Baku on August 21.
Jenkins, 43, is an artist known in the world for his street installations created from duct tape.
The event was attended by the founder of YARAT! Contemporary Art
Space Aida Mahmudova, prominent public figures and well-known
culture and art personalities.
The installations, which were created by the artist and students of
Jenkins's master classes in Baku, were presented to the audience.
As part of the workshops students developed a series of projects on
urban environment on the Animal Planet topic.
Jenkins said, "I have been conducting master classes for young artists for two weeks. We were creating art objects from the packing adhesive tape. Our task is to create an interesting, educational project for the urban environment."
The project involved five young beginner artists - Aysel Rehimli, Seyare Neymatova, Shargiya Hasanova, Sabina Najafova, and Nina Narimanova, who presented 10 works. The project's curator is Naila Allahverdiyeva.
"All the time, we were working on the project, we developed
various ideas, wanted to do something creative. Learning how to
create the installations from adhesive tape was easy and very
interesting. I can say that I have never done anything more
interesting in my life than this project," Aysel Rehimli said.
"We had a great pleasure working on the project. Working with Mark
Jenkins was very interesting and informative. We wanted to show
with our works that animals should be taken care of, they should be
treated with attention and compassion," another project
participant, Sabina Najafova, said.
"Manimals" comprises a set of furry or "zoomorphic" human figures.
These modern "chimeras" aim to confuse boundaries between man and
animal, the internal and external, life and death, nature and
civilization.
The installations will be on display at the Fountain Square until August 30.
In addition to the street-art interventions, Jenkins' works have appeared in galleries of the United States, continental Europe, Brazil and the UK.
The artist's projects have inspired others to develop "Scotch culture" all over the world. He actively promotes new technology art online, at www.tapesculpture.org, and teaches the process of creating ephemeral sculptures during workshops in the cities he visits.
Jenkins' works have been referenced by such publications as Time Out New York, The Washington Post, and The Independent. One of the world's most popular blogs dedicated to street-art, woostercollective.com, specially reviewed Jenkins' creations.
The Participate Baku Public Art Festival is organized by YARAT! Contemporary Art Space and sponsored by Bank Respublika.