Unearthing the Understory

Kenny Jensen

A Florida native who spent much of his childhood outdoors, Jensen continues to maintain a deep connection to and concern for the state’s unique natural environment. Kenny actively seeks, collects, and re-contextualizes, overlooked, organic phenomena and man-made artifacts, which in turn serve as inspiration or raw materials for a wide range of cross-discipline investigations. Along with the curiosity of a naturalist, his practice is driven by the earnest concern of a prophet/poet – revealing what is being lost, while simultaneously reveling in the infinite wonder of what remains.

This body of work grew out of a need to further process an ongoing conversation I have been having with my older sister over the past several months about concerns we have for how our tribe of origin has formed us and the society we are a part of and how problematic traditions and systems of beliefs are now affecting the formation and futures of our young children. Through this exploration, what initially started as a years long habit of pinning random significant found images and old photographs to the background of my studio so as to remain in the periphery of my consciousness, has coalesced into a focused contemplative practice of discovery and catharsis as I continue to wrestle through these complex questions.