[image]
[title]Through a haze of gore, animalism, fetish club aesthetics and nods to 1980s dystopian cinema, Jenkin Van Zyl makes art about freedom and escape. A recent show at Edel Assanti gallery led viewers through a giant rat’s mouth into a hospital/maze to watch a film. Another show at Rose Easton saw a huge latex beast trapped in a filthy glass cage. His work is full of latex costumes and biomorphic prosthetics, sensuality and grime, it’s sensual and terrifying, and it will absolutely make you wish you could dance with rats.
What would you say your art is about?
‘Desire, entropy, devotion, gossip, monstrosity, holes, fantasy and failure, bodily autonomy and the power structures that try to contain them, time as a Möbius strip, journeying to the end of the rainbow, sweat, competition, community, costume, the carnivalesque, reinvention, mischief, transformation, and deviance. I think that art is an important means to create pockets of progress and imagination within the larger political landscape of decay, deadlock and the long state of emergency.’
What inspires you?
‘I am drawn to fringe and subcultural communities, places where alternative ways of living are mapped out. I’m excited by what we can learn from the vital and complex world building that occurs within these spaces and the ways the body can be reimagined inside of them. My work often makes reference to different forms of nightlife, and the joy, ritual and tensions that erupt from it, but also to micro subcultures, fetishists, fandom, retreats, alternative religions and reenactment societies.’
What are the challenges of being an artist in London?
‘I love London, but it can be a hostile city. The Conservative government’s austerity measures have been in place for the entirety of the decade-plus that I’ve lived here, resulting in UK arts losing more than a third of its funding in that time. The generation of artists I’ve come up with in London has navigated an art world where funding and cultural institutions have been in an endless state of emergency. I think Industria’s vital recent Structurally F–cked report sums up the conditions of artists pay and work the best; the median hourly rate paid to artists was found to be £2.60, meaning that artists working in the public sector often earn significantly less than minimum wage, and sometimes paid nothing at all.’
What one thing could be done to better support young artists in London?
‘I believe the mobilising of a left-wing political movement and resulting government, with increase of public arts funding, would improve the lives of everyone in London.’
What would you do with the Turbine Hall?
‘I would (of course) want to mount a labyrinthine new film installation.’
Sarah McCrory, director of Goldsmiths CCA says:
‘In the arts we often discuss where the life of the artist ends, and their art begins, and the impact of that synthesis. Andy Warhol, Orlan, Joseph Beuys, and Gilbert & George are historical examples of a life and artistic practice that are totally entwined. Jenkin Van Zyl is another such artist, and is wonderfully visible, both artistically and personally. Van Zyl commits to the worlds he creates through his own attire, sporting horns, heels and exquisite makeup that would shame the technique pros of YouTube.’
This interview is part of Time Out’s The Future of London Art series. Read more here.