I have a research based practice with outcomes across sculpture, video, sound and performance. Utilizing fieldwork processes, I’m involved in encounters and interactions with sites and in the collection, articulation and dissemination of these sites elsewhere. I’ve recently found myself in conversations with anthropologists, Japanese potters, sludge specialists and an anatomist in an anatomy
I have a research based practice with outcomes across sculpture, video, sound and performance. Utilizing fieldwork processes, I’m involved in encounters and interactions with sites and in the collection, articulation and dissemination of these sites elsewhere. I’ve recently found myself in conversations with anthropologists, Japanese potters, sludge specialists and an anatomist in an anatomy lab. In Orator (2015), I collected and transported London Thames foreshore material up stream to Oxfordshire where participants were invited to carry the rubble on a 5 mile walk across the fields before washing it in the younger Thames river. In Fluence (2016), I approached the shooting of video footage in site visits to a water treatment plant as live collection, gathering footage through interactions with the camera, site and body. This was then ‘treated’ (animated/cut/effected) in the
editing process until settling into a new form, as commissioned video in a gallery setting. I’m drawn to systems of circulation and transformative processes of production. My installation Chamber (2016), was an ‘elsewhere’, in which suspended frozen Thames river water and feather sculptures dripped delicately onto Anagama ceramics, ash and rocks alongside a projected film made in my bath. During the show I spent time in the gallery and used a POV camera to video and make a 12 minute film, which was selected to be shown in Ruskin Shorts, Modern Art Oxford (2016) where it played out as another drier site - close up, messy and discomforting. I try to follow feelings, allowing for a not knowing and letting possibilities open up through doing. I seek out collaborations - a moment shared
through a close handling of an object together with an elderly person with dementia, a town walk with a geologist as he narrates the landscapes of the buildings to me. I’ve lately also been involved in archiving material left by the science writer, hovercraft expert, IJNA fellow and friend, Angela Croome.
Fritha Jenkins www.frithajenkins.com
Education
2016 MFA (Distinction), Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford
2002 BA(hons) Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London
2011 - 2016 AltMFA, London, Artist run alternative to Fine art masters
2016 - present, Further Research, London, artist led alternative to PHD (Founding member)
Forthcoming in 2017
Unperforming: Are we nearly there yet, edition. Toynbee Studios, London. Sept
SSSSS Encounters, Supernormal Festival, Oxfordshire, Aug
Curators Choice, Leeds College of Art, Date tbc
Peer Mentor Sessions with Pavilion Projects, at the Foundling Museum. Funded by Artquest. July-Dec
2016 (selected)
Fluence It’s Offal, ARTHOUSE1, London (Commissioned film & performance developed from wastewater treatment works research)
In the Mouth: Skltloctcoctlo, Chisenhale Dance Space, Without Walls, London.
[without voice] nlaaammlaaanthla, APT Live, APT Gallery, London. Commissioned performance.
MFA Degree show, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford.
Chamber 2, Ruskin Shorts, Modern Art Oxford. Selected by Ghislaine Leung, Ben Roberts, Anjalika Sagar.
Washing up Rubble, Add2Cart, Glasgow. Performance Event during Glasgow International.
Chamber, SOLO show, 395 Southwark Park Rd, London.
Feathering, Unperforming 6, Scabs and Wounds, 443 Inverness Street Gallery, London.
2015 (selected)
Audible Structures, Project Radio, Leeds. Commissioned 40 minute radio broadcast made with Rebecca Glover, David McDiarmid as part of an ongoing collaboration, Expedition to the Icebergs.
Artificial Seams, AltMFA Palindronic Sequence, Artlicks Weekend, London.
Orator, Supernormal Festival, Oxfordshsire. A performance walk.
Reception, Bread & Jam 1, London. Site responsive installation in a room in a London terraced house.
Merz Barn Residency, Lake District. with AltMFA.
Rufflings, AltMFA International Jambouree. Guest Projects, London
Tender, Sketchy Remarks, Floating Island Gallery, London.
2014 (selected)
Ochlocracy Orchestra, Cabaret Melancolique, London.
Ochlocracy Orchestra, RCM.RCA Collaboration No 1. Royal College of Music, London. Handlings, Unperforming 3, Floating Island Gallery, Isle of Dogs, London. Sculpture produced as the result of a residency along the Thames foreshore.
Currencies, Technopolis, Gracechurch street, London. Group Show.
Awards
Pete Lloyd Lewis Studio Award, Chisenhale Artplace 2017/18
Graduate Research Award, St Peter’s College, University of Oxford 2016
Published Research
Here you go (Handlings) OAR (Oxford Artist & Practice based research Platform) Issue 1: Sites of Research 2017
