Jennifer Barnett Hensel Interview

check out her work here and here


1. Can you talk a little bit about your recent show at the P and H
titled, "Self-Invited"?

The show is my first here in Memphis. It consists of nine works on
paper and an installation drawing done directly on the wall. The
title came from a Bukowski poem that speaks of visitors and people's
need for interaction, and how exhausting these interactions can be. I
feel like I have taken on both roles discussed in the poem, especially
in this new city, as well as in my personal relationships cultivated
from other places. The art works at the P&H are meditations on these
thoughts and feelings.

2. Explain how the installation ties into the nine wall pieces and is
the installation aspect new to your work?

I have done installations in the past when the concept called for it.
I love the temporal nature of working directly on the wall surface and
feel that it reflects the fragility of life's time. Everything
changes within this time and will eventually fade to a sort of
nothingness. I like that these marks can take so much time and
thought but still become a part of that physical unlasting, only to
exist and change into something else. The installation here becomes a
direct link between the smaller pieces but is specific to the P&H
space itself. I see the wall piece as my mark on Memphis and a way to
place myself into the dialogue here. I am, in a sense,
"self-invited", and my art is the voice on this visit to this place…
like the situation that occurs within Bukowski's poem. This voice can
be welcomed by some and to others it may be unwanted. The nine wall
pieces are more of a reflection on different people's roles in my
personal space and how these interactions make up my relations with
them. Each work is a meditation on moments and events that have
happened in the past but are still affecting the now. These are
moments that have had a permanent impression on my life as a whole,
where the wall piece is reflective of a more immediate response to my
current place and time here in Memphis.

3. Can you discuss the specificity of the numbers that are associated
in your work, how the number is represented, and what they mean?

Ah, yes, the numbers… I use numbers as a form of symbolism. I have
been including this quantification method over the past year in my
studio practice. It has become a way to release my emotions about
life situations. Each of the small panels have 1000 circles and were
counted and drawn in one single session. The time spent with the
drawing becomes a meditation zone to really think through and figure
out personal situations. It is my way of quantifying life situations
into tangible objects and thoughts. This series is focused on the
idea of debt, both monetarily and within the relationship of mother
and daughter.

4. If the numbers serve as a reminder or a resolution of an issue you
had with someone, does making the work help that?

Yes and No. The work does help to deal with issues in a positive way,
but on the other hand it does make one confront the issue head-on and
that could lead to a Pandora's Box situation… but hey, I guess it will
give a lot of fuel to make new work.

5. You recently moved to Memphis to attend graduate school at the
Memphis College of Art, where did you come from and how did you get
here? What do you think of our art scene here?

It has been an unusual road that has led me here. I was raised in
Cincinnati, Ohio and started college at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.
After about a year, I felt that I needed to experience different
places and began to travel- a lot. I ended up in Minneapolis and fell
in love with the culture and epic cold that is truly Minnesotan.
After five years of snowy goodness, an art degree, and many hot dishes
later, the negative temperatures began to lose their luster and I
moved out to the Boston area. It was there that I decided to continue
to my education and applied to graduate programs. I had a decision to
make between Baltimore and Memphis… I had never been to Memphis and
thought that it would be a great start for a new chapter in life, so
here I am. It turned out to be one of the better decisions I have
made. I love the city and the people, it is almost as if someone took
the good parts of the places I have a connection to and smashed them
together. You have the weather like my time spent living in Florida,
the people like Cincy, the green spaces and art scene of Minneapolis,
and none of Boston. What else do you need! Memphis has been a
pleasant surprise as far as the art scene goes. There is a lot going
on and great people making things happen. I feel that there is a real
opportunity for the art scene to affect the city in a positive way and
give back to the community. I feel encouraged when I see this thought
already in action from projects like those coming from the Urban Arts
Commission. All in all, the city has a ton of good stuff and I look
forward to being a part of this place for awhile.

6. Being new to Memphis, Is this a new body of work for you or a
continuation of previous work? And how has living in Memphis affected
your work or your practice?

Memphis has given me a clean slate to make art from. My art has
always focused on similar concepts and those have not changed much
from being here. Instead, I feel that I have been able to think about
these with clarity.

7. What is your favorite; movie, food, book, smell, music?

Movie… 40 days and 40 nights… yeah b/c I am lame like that.
Food… Anything from Red Bamboo in NYC
Book… the Tao of Pooh
Smell… Tea, of all kinds
Music…. If you could make a nonstop shuffle of Atmosphere, Alkaline
Trio, and the Weakerthans I would be one happy lady.