★Jenny Rask

Born 1971, Portland, Oregon

Lives and works in Los Angeles



EDUCATION


California State University of Long Beach, MFA (Sculpture), 2020

Art Center College of Design, 2016-17

Weaving Studies at Fumi Omiya Studio, 2010-15

Permaculture Academy, (Permaculture Certificate), 2007

University of Oregon, BA (Journalism), 1993

Université Jean-Moulin-Lyon-III, Lyon, France, 1992

My studio practice is an amalgamation of sculpture, installations, ceramics, drawing, painting, and photography. My process is intuitive and based on an economy of material, employing disparate found objects and natural waste from the surrounding areas of Los Angeles and beyond. These curated collections are embedded with life, memory and history from which I hope to construct meaningfulness in a newly generated form. I organize these materials intentionally, transforming the ordinary, conventional, and mundane into an aggregate forms. I attempt to present common things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to enhance perception of the familiar. This involves not only the repurposing of material, but deeper explorations into the meanings of material: its embodiment of entropy, and its inherent temporality. My work has an informal quality. Makeshift building produces sculpture that is fragile and precarious--suggesting the insecurity, vulnerability, and uncertainty intrinsic to the human condition. I demonstrate the instability of form–its unpredictability and unreliability as it pertains to self-help and existential questions that remain indefinitely unanswered. Can we troubleshoot our own impermanence?
I have an intimate fascination with materiality and form, exploring important synergies between them. My process employs imperfect, unstable making and building methods, inspired by the idea of ‘necessity as the mother of invention’ and “low cost design” improvised systems. My work transforms my collected materials. I modify incongruous domestic and natural objects—many on the brink of collapse--customizing them into exquisite, non-functioning, and sometimes incomplete arrangements. Improvisational building while performing the confidence of an expert is an important part of my process. Systems are constructed to create order. Unexpected materials are arranged in an attempt to lighten the heaviness of objects literally and emotionally.

works:

photo projects:

lifeforms

Art — Jenny Rask

makeshift:

articles:

hungry trucks:

reference:

Jenny Rask