JENN COLLINS

When Time and Chemistry Dance

Jenn Collins has been a resident of the Hygienic Arts Coop since it opened in January of 2001. She is a mixed media assemblage sculptor working in various materials ranging from clay to animal bone, wood, antique objects and toys. Her work is best described as symbolic three-dimensional collage.

After graduating with two majors from Connecticut College's Art and Art History departments, with a minor degree in Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies from Keble College, Oxford University, England, Jenn was the artist in residence at the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut during the theater restoration process from 1998-2001. Presently, she is a carpenter working for Paul McMaster's Eighteenth Century Restoration Carpentry restoring and renovating old homes, objects, and building specialty items. She exhibits her artwork at regional galleries several times a year and is an active supporter of the local arts community. Jenn lives at the Hygienic with her two feline children Lucifer Pierre and Azzael Francis.

Artist's Statement
Conventional meanings attached to an object are reassessed when the object is given a new environment. As a mixed media assemblage sculptor, I work mostly with old objects, fragments of a different place in time, items that had one use and to which I reassign another symbolic use in my artwork. Reinterpretation of symbols, the breathing of new life into objects, and using them to narrate my work involves personal interpretation of age-old symbols.

Natural reoccurring themes in my artwork include: the examination of time and reality as a man made confinement, the power of objects as symbols, and the ever-necessary element of the dichotomies of existence.

As I continue to study both studio art and art history, the entanglement of the two subjects fascinates me and drives my artistic vision. My concentration in art history was originally in medieval and northern renaissance art. Medieval Christian rhetoric works its way into many of my pieces by way of direct reference to allegory.

My most recent body of work, "Art to Play With", was exhibited at the Golden Street Gallery, New London, October 2003. This show was a chance for me to experiment with making interactive art. Each piece was designed with the intention that the viewer could touch buttons and turn cranks to make the piece "work" by lighting up or moving parts. I enjoyed watching people having fun interacting with and ultimately completing the artwork by touching each piece. Interactive art is something I plan to continue incorporating in future pieces.

Scissor Bird

Death, 13

The Blind Leading the Blind