Sarah E. Jenkins is a queer multidisciplinary artist from northern Appalachia. They create experimental stop motion animation, drawing, and social practice about natural resource extraction, post-industrial landscapes/histories, and invisible labors. At MacDowell, Jenkins created an edit of their experimental animation Disappearing Acts. As part of the process, she worked with composer Feona Lee Jones, who is currently working on a solo piano piece for the project. When she wasn’t editing, Jenkins was in the woods near their studio creating site-responsive animations by painting and drawing onto fallen and living trees with charcoal, graphite, and water. These stop motion experiments will serve as tests for an upcoming residency at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, where Jenkins will create site-responsive animation in the Cascade Head forest in the winter of 2021/22.
Jenkins created much of the stop-motion footage for Disappearing Acts during their residency at the Studios at MASSMoCA. Their work and collaborations have shown in the northeastern U.S. and abroad, including the MFA Boston, ICA Boston, Mills Gallery at Boston Center for the Arts, and GRRL HAUS Cinema (Berlin and Boston). Jenkins’ work is included in upcoming exhibitions/screenings at Montserrat College of Art, The Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany (LSVD), and SUPERCOLLIDER (Los Angeles).
