Malia Jensen | Eremocene | Viewing Room
Malia Jensen, Hand, with Plum, 2020, kiln cast glass, 7.5 x 10.5 x 8.5”, Edition of 3, 2 AP
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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Malia Jensen’s multimedia art practice focuses on natural cycles, the human form and connections with nature. Her works are often visual metaphors that encourage multiple readings from the viewer. The title Eremocene references philosopher and biologist E.O. Wilson’s theory about humankind’s impending “Age of Loneliness” after the rapid decline of the planet’s biodiversity, and Jensen’s related themes of erasure and transformation in this body of work.
This exhibition is the culmination of Jensen’s Nearer Nature: Worth Your Salt project 2019-20, in which carved salt-lick sculptures representing parts of the human form, were situated next to motion-activated cameras throughout Oregon’s wilderness. Video footage captured elk, bobcat, fox, birds, coyotes, mice and raccoons engaging with the salt forms or being in their proximity. Jensen created a video artwork from thousands of sequential 30-second clips of animal activity and the surrounding landscape. The six-hour video of continually rotating surveillance footage highlights mesmerizing sequences of wildlife interactions and encourages us to consider our place in the natural world.
Malia Jensen, Foot, 2020, kiln cast glass, concrete, 10.5 x 11 x 7.5" (w/base), Edition of 3, 2AP
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ARTIFACTS/OBSERVATIONS
The “artifacts” of Jensen’s project include the salt lick remnants she retrieved from the locations that were later kiln cast in glass. The resulting sculptures of worn away, weathered and texturized salt transmit an oddly seductive tactility, imbued with the contact of dozens of animals. Each one acts as a kind of sculptural elegy to the human form, dissolved by the actions of the environment and the many unwitting animal collaborators, subsequently preserved through human intervention.
The Nearer Nature: Worth Your Salt project began in spring 2019 after Malia Jensen was awarded a Creative Heights Initiative from The Oregon Community Foundation. Special thanks to Michael Endo and the Yucca Valley Material Lab where Jensen produced the glass sculptures in January 2020.
Elizabeth Leach Gallery is proud to announce Malia Jensen will be participating in a Virtual Residency with the Portland Art Museum from July 30 through November 7, 2020. Jensen’s 6-hour video Worth Your Salt is accessible, 24 hours a day, free of charge, on the Portland Art Museum’s website.
Malia Jensen, Breast, 2020, kiln cast glass, 8 x 10.5 x 8.5", Edition of 3, 2AP
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“The sensual satisfaction of making everything is part of what drives me, and I’m not against some measures of seduction [...] My aim is to make connections and exchanges of ideas and feeling.”
Malia Jensen, Nearer Nature: Worth Your Salt (excerpt - 24 minutes), 2019, video, 6 hours, Edition of 10, 4AP
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LEARN MORE ABOUT THE NEARER NATURE PROJECT
“Malia Jensen’s work combines a keen sense of observation of the natural world with a complex sense of humor [...] Her works play with our emotions by triggering contradictory feelings of attraction and repulsion, causing us to re-examine our preconceptions about animal and human behavior.”
Insex: Ants, 2020
archival inkjet print on Hahnemühle metallic photo rag
4.25 x 6.25" image
13.5 x 14.5" framed
Edition of 10, 2AP
ABOUT THE INSEX SERIES
Also on view are Jensen’s color photographs titled Insex, a series of voyeuristic and playful insect portraits caught mid-mating ritual. These images, by contrast to the sculptures and video, are situated in the domesticated spaces of yards and patios, witnessed through quiet observation of the wildlife near at hand. Photographed over many years, Jensen considers these images a testament to the persistence of nature and an ode to our own animal instincts. Each piece is printed on Hahnemühle metallic photo rag paper and comes in an edition of 10.
MORE INFORMATION ON MALIA JENSEN
AVAILABLE WORK
EREMOCENE
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ABOUT THE ARTIST