Whoa Jenkins!
I stumbled upon Mark Jenkins work when searching through images of art installations, and within seconds I was nearly in tears from laughter. Not all of Jenkins installations are meant to produce laughter but there is humor found within all his pieces. Jenkins is best known for his street installations, especially those made of clear tape, configured to replicate babies or male human figures. Jenkins has installed his work all over the world, mostly found in cities. Jenkins first series of street installations feature clear tape men molded after himself, then clothed and placed within the cities where they call attention to themselves through their unusual actions or poses. He then videotapes onlookers reactions to his pieces. His piece “Embed” which gained a wide audience created the illusion that one of the clothed tape men was sticking his head through a wall. Jenkins has also began an ongoing project called the “Storker Project”, where he places clear tape babies through out urban settings. You can find the babies sitting on top of crossing signals, hanging from poles, sitting in telephone booths, climbing in to garbage cans, and nearly everywhere else. Jenkins has taken installation art to a new level, and what seems seemingly realistic at first glance proves to be much more in depth. I find Jenkins work to be ingenious, reaching a perfect balance between humor, intrigue, creativity, realism, and abstraction.