Kenny Jensen stands in front of his work “Paths to Consumption: USFSP.” Thomas Iacobucci | The Crow’s Nest
By Thomas Iacobucci
Outside of the Lowell E. Davis Memorial Hall, parallel to the Science and Technology building, sits Kenny Jensen’s latest artistic endeavor: a sculpture replicating the leaf miner’s consumption habits and the path it leaves in its wake.
Jensen’s “Paths to Consumption: USFSP” brings a fresh look to the campus through his environmentally conscience art. Four USF St. Petersburg students helped Jensen with the project.
“The whole initiative with bringing art onto campus is very contingent upon it having a strong educational component,” Jensen said.
Jensen, a St. Petersburg based multidisciplinary artist, sought out students in the fall semester to help contribute to the “Paths to Consumption” project.
After meeting with an environmental economics class and a marketing class, Jensen was able to get students from each to do a nature tour of the campus in order to look at the ecosystems and discover any paths that might be present.
“This has been an ongoing themed project I have been working on, the Paths to Consumption, so we looked for paths on campus and the ones we ended up finding were the leaf miner paths,” Jensen said.
Jensen then challenged each of the four students to take a look at their own paths: how they move through the world and what they individually consume.
Each student then came up with their own interpretation of the project, selecting paths that represent their own life, both figurative and literal.
Maria P. Garcis, a former USF St. Petersburg student, took a pattern that was left from a leaf miner and traced it over a map of her neighborhood to see where that would lead her.
“I biked all around my neighborhood, and it ended up taking me to this really big desiccated tree that kind of looked like all these patterns,” said Garcis, gesturing to the “Paths to Consumption” sculpture behind her.
Looking at the mounted “Paths to Consumption: USFSP,” students will notice the divide between the main leaf on the left side of the wall and the seven individually drawn paths on the right.
The grouping of the individual paths represents each student’s experience.
“There’s unity in the diversity,” Jensen said.
The main leaf represents the campus as a whole and the rich diversity and experience each student has.
Aesthetically, the common theme throughout the groupings of the pieces is a crisp black base with vibrant colors popping out in a Pollack-esque way.
“It’s functional and it’s aesthetic and conceptual,” Jensen said. “Conceptually, why I used the black is because this work is about exaggerations in scale, seeing things in as wide of an experience as possible.”
The “Paths to Consumption: USFSP” will remain mounted on the outside of the Lowell E. Davis Memorial Hall for the next five years.
More information on Jensen’s exhibit can be found in the Poynter Library through the end of March.
