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    Jessica Drenk Transforms Thousands of Pencils into Organic Vessels

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    All images © Jessica Drenk, shared with permission

    Jessica Drenk Transforms Thousands of Pencils into Organic Vessels

    September 27, 2024

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Undulating, organic sculptures emerge from thousands of drawing utensils in Jessica Drenk’s ongoing Implements series. Fascinated by the aesthetics and behavior of multiples of mass-produced objects, the artist (previously) chose pencils because of their stackable shape and “the thought that, if I sanded them, I could make a sculpture that drew on itself in the making: sandpaper would smear the graphite while the piece was being shaped,” she tells Colossal.

    Implements explores the relationship between interior and exterior, the container and the contained. The inside of each work showcases the out-of-the-box objects, while the outside has been cut and smoothed to reveal lengths of graphite and bare wood.

    Detail of “Implement 36”

    Drenk has been making sculptures with pencils for several years, and the shapes continue to evolve. One of the challenges of working with the material is the difficulty of gluing pre-painted, non-porous surfaces together. “In response to this, I once ordered 30,000 unpainted pencils to make larger sculptures that could be glued into more dynamic shapes,” she says.

    Over time, the Implements series has influenced further sculptures, such as “Speleothem” and “Formation,” in which the pencils compose larger dynamic forms. “In a sense, both aspects of the pieces resemble nature,” Drenk says. “Even the hexagon is found in nature, from beehives to columnar basalt rocks.”

    Drenk is currently working on a geology-inspired series called Aggregate that puts junk mail to use, along with wall sculptures made from books. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

    “Speleothem”

    “Implement 44”

    “Implement 73”

    Detail of “Formation”

    Implements series

    “Formation” in progress

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      in Art

      Textural Sculptures by Artist Jessica Drenk Use Junk Mail, Book Pages, and Q-Tips to Explore Materiality

      by

      
      Art

      #books
      #installation
      #paper
      #pencils
      #sculpure
      #wood

      October 22, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Dendrite” (2019), Q-tips and plaster. All images © Jessica Drenk, courtesy of Galleri Urbane, shared with permission
      Montana-born artist Jessica Drenk (previously) employs simple materials, like shopping flyers and standard No. 2 pencils, to create organic sculptures that are chaotic and arresting explorations of the substances themselves. Bundled Q-tips spread across a site-specific installation like the roots of a tree, a carved section of plywood reveals concentric patterns, and strips of junk mail are plastered together in long waves.
      While Drenk’s latest series, titled Transmutations, is diverse and ranges from wall pieces to cavernous sculptures, each artwork explores materiality and how disparate shapes and textures combine to create forms that are new both physically and conceptually. The artist explains in a statement:
      In treating everyday objects as raw material to sculpt, I practice a form of conceptual alchemy: through physically manipulating these objects their meanings become transmuted. Each piece is a direct response to material—a subversion of the meanings associated with it, and a reference to the life cycle of objects through time.
      If you’re in Dallas, Transmutations is on view at Galleri Urbane through October 31. Otherwise, follow Drenk’s textural works on Artsy, and watch an interview with the artist at her studio below.

      “Contour 3” (2020), carved plywood, 47 x 38 x 3 inches
      “Implement 68” (2020), pencils, 22 x 18 x 17 inches
      “Cerebral Mapping” (2020), books and wax, 132 x 80 inches
      “Compression 3” (2020), books, wax on wood panel, and wood frame, 44 x 38 x 2 inches
      “Dendrite” (2019), Q-tips and plaster
      Top: “Aggregate 3” (2020), junk mail, 28 x 130 x 2.25 inches. Bottom: “Aggregate 2” (2020), junk mail and plaster, 20 x 78 x 2.5 inches
      Left: “Circulation 18” (2020), books and wax, 31 x 29 x 1.5 inches. Right: “Circulation 19” (2020), junk mail and cardboard, 36 x 36 x 1.5 inches

      

      #books
      #installation
      #paper
      #pencils
      #sculpure
      #wood

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