Jenny Polak received her MA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts
and her BA Architecture from Cambridge University. Her work has been exhibited
at Art in General, Artists Space, PS122, Rush Foundation Gallery, and Exit
Art, all in New York City, as well as in England. She has received the Franklin
Furnace Future of the Present Award and was the winner of Art of Change/Signals
as well as completed projects for Women in the Streets Billboard Project
in London and Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Her work has been reviewed
in The Guardian, The New York Times, and Brooklyn Rail. Born London, England;
she currently lives in Brooklyn.
STUDIO MAR. 2006
PREVIOUS WORK
IN
SITU SANCTUARY, 2003 Architectural hiding place designed for
Exit Art Gallery. Plywood, steel, surveillance cameras, monitors,
paper, 2’x16’x13’
INTERVIEW
Name: Jenny Polak Where are you from: London, England Where do you live/work: Brooklyn, NY Your website (if any): www.jennypolak.com
Who or what influences and inspires you?
People who travel far to try to make a better life or better world, speaking
more than 1 language.
How has the LMCC Residency affected your work?
It makes me want to try new stuff, steal ideas from the brilliant artists
around me.
Do you have an unrealized dream project? (no matter how improbable,
absurd, costly, etc. it might seem)
Loads of them. I want to design and build a temporary portable housing
unit for urban migrant workers in the form of a fake tree that you install
in vacant lots or traffic islands near the workplaces. The tree houses
would be entirely self-sufficient.
What is your solution to artist’s or writer’s block?
Look at the ceiling, its interesting relationship to the walls, its hollowness.
And think how hard all those cleaners work.
What is your favorite website and why?
http://www.sodaplay.com/zoo/index.htm - funny interactive structures:
I don’t know how they’re done.
