“Driven to Extinction” Art Exhibition of works by Cynthia Jensen
Cynthia Jensen is a San Francisco Bay Area sculptor whose work documents the impact of our industrial society on the environment. Inspired by specimens and artifacts in museums of natural history and anthropology, Jensen creates contemporary masks and sculptures of people and animals showing the effects of human actions on our fragile ecosystems.
Jensen’s sculptures are surprisingly whimsical and eclectic. She combines organic materials (clay, wood, bone) with industrial materials (recycled steel, plastic, rubber wire). Found objects are incorporated, including domestic items used in everyday life such as a pudding mold, bicycle seat, shoe stretcher, and a bathtub leg. These materials, manufactured products of our civilization, are turned upside down and inside out in a chaotic version of their original purpose.
Jensen brings an artist’s sensibility to a deadly serious issue. Through dark humor and odd juxtapositions, she makes us see and feel what is happening to humans and animals. Her sculptures show the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, overdevelopment, and climate change.
