Page 47 - Classics Issue

SWEET EMOTIONThis all started when Jenkell’s parents forbade her to eat sweets as a child, this was to shake up her inner consciousness and like the turmoil which creates a volcano deep underground, would ultimately defne her early life. All that subconscious frustration erupted one day while experimenting with different materials Jenkell heated some Plexiglas and twisted it, the frst candy or sweet wrapping was born. Jenkell believes that candy fgures present the only type of art that affects all human senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Jenkell views candy as a simple and universal product that encapsulates personal recollections and indirect memories. A candy that everybody knows since earliest childhood. A candy that crosses the time and the generations. A candy that crosses the borders. A candy that calls out and fascinates by its simplicity and its natural beauty. Curved and sensual forms and especially a recognizable shape and a real signature for the artist Laurence Jenkell. Jenkell, a self-taught artist who lives and works in Vallauris, France, began her creative career in the middle of the 90s. An artistic research led Jenkell to experiment with various techniques such as inclusion, dripping, fring, and casting. Success fnally came using Plexiglas and obtaining the “wrapping” technique, Jenkell fnally started to produce candy sculptures that had obsessed her for years. Candies allowed her to exorcise the devils of her childhood and made her question her own heredity. The mystical candy that became a pop icon includes a concept of multiplicity and seriality. The artist’s works, which stem from an intellectual and cultural process, have been presented in more than 25 countries.Laurence Jenkell was presenting her latest artwork: “Wrapping Twistie Trash” at the Top Marques exhibition in Monte Carlo. With this work Laurence Jenkell takes a position on topical subjects, the evolution of our consumer society and even overconsumption, waste, environment, hunger in the world etc. It brings up the debate on poignant subjects such as waste in the oceans, open-air dumps, etc. and raises other issues such as global warming. It upgrades the garbage container, redesigns it, reinvents it and gives it a new meaning. She re-interprets the Poubelle, gives it a cultural and intellectual dimension and makes it an object of art, covetousness and desire for appropriation.Laurence Jenkell