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Sept/Oct 2010

Bringing the outside in > NSW
May Lane is a very short street in Sydney’s inner west Read More

Cream of the crop > NSW
The Museum of Contemporary Art becomes a hive of activity in preparation for Primavera, Read More

Drawing NOW > VIC
A single black bullet is drawn starkly upon a plain white ground. Read More

Melbourne Art Fair 2010 > VIC
No one could accuse Melbourne Art Fair organisers of treading too lightly. Read More

Social capital
Craig Walsh’s Digital Odyssey is epic Read More

To fair, or not too fair > VIC
Never before has alternative culture been so mainstream. Read More

Weird scenes inside the Art Museum
There’s a scene in the brilliant recent Australian film Animal Kingdom Read More

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Robert Jenyns (NSW)

By Tracey Clement

Pop psychologists and armchair analysts are masters of the succinct and the obvious. They sum up the serpentine makeovers required to negotiate life’s complexities into simple one-liners such as, “You spend your entire life getting over your childhood.” But they do have a point, defining
moments can come very early on.

The austerity of sculptor Robert Jenyns’s childhood years still echoes through his work, not in a grim or self indulgent manner, but in his ongoing obsession and playful engagement with toys. Jenyns’s was born at the tail end of World War II, and his early years were characterised by shortages of the things most Aussie kids these days take for granted. As he says, “there were no toys, if you wanted something you had to make it yourself.” Which is exactly what Jenyns did and he never really stopped.

On his tenth birthday, Jenyns was given his first Meccano set, an exciting event he still remembers fondly. Meccano, with its nifty pre-drilled parts and tiny nuts and bolts, meant he could construct his own playthings without having to scavenge materials from around the house, or out back in the bush. The first thing he made was a tractor, and along with other vehicular boy-toy classics like cars, trucks and flying machines, he’s been making them in one form or another ever since.

Jenyn’s first solo show was a direct reaction to his childhood memories of toys, or more accurately, the lack of them. As he recalls, he had a Canadian school mate who was the proud owner of several luxurious, state of the art, motorised mini airplanes. Mustering his Aussie post war, make-do ingenuity, Jenyns would construct his own from twigs and bits of string, but they would never fly quite right and he admits, “I was really jealous.” Decades later in his 1974 The Plane Show, held at Watters Gallery in Sydney (who still represent him), Jenyns filled the gallery with sculptures based on model airplanes.

Robert Jenyns, Car, 2006, painted metal, steel, perspex,
wheels, 70.6 x 191 x 68cm

In 2005, under difficult circumstances, the Tasmania based sculptor returned to Meccano for inspiration, with stunning results. It was one of those cases in which he made the best of a bad situation. Having finally retired from a distinguished career as a teacher, and as Studio Head of sculpture at the University of Tasmania School of Art for two decades, Jenyns moved house and embarked on building a new studio, only to find himself embroiled in a protracted battle with the neighbours. Without a studio space, Jenyns was forced into finding a new way of working. As he explains, “If I’m not making art, I get really angry, I’m like a dead bear’s bum, not very pleasant to be around! It’s something that I’ve got to do really.” At the suggestion of his sons, he began using Meccano to create maquettes for sculptures. These are then
carefully scaled up before being manufactured in Aluminium by a local engineering firm.

In 2006, Jenyn’s used this method to create Meanwhile.....down south in Tasmania, a nearly life sized logging truck assembled from his own custom built jumbo Meccano, complete with real logs. This piece is characteristic of Jenyns’s work in that even though its toy form evokes playful, nostalgic images of childhood, it also carries a sharp political message: deforestation is not a game. Jenyns’s truck was a finalist in the 2006 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award and in 2008, he took out the outdoor exhibition’s big prize with his Meccano caravan, Pont de l'Archêveché, which pays tribute to Albert Tucker, one of his early inspirations.

In his latest solo show, Jenyns presents drawings and paintings along with his 3D objects, but he admits, “Sculpture is the thing that I love most.” Jenyns is an artist who enjoys the physical act of making, as he explains, “My philosophy has always been, I think with my hands.” In this exhibition he once again presents big boy’s toys, but it’s not all fun and games. Jenyns’s giant Meccano car, ship, plane, double-decker bus and truck can easily be read as a simple, almost whimsical nod to childhood, but closer inspection reveals very adult issues. The ship carries a cargo of woodchips, the bright red bus symbolises an alien culture, the plane is a jet fighter, harbinger of death. Robert Jenyns's Meccano sculptures tell complex stories, both personal and political.

Robert Jenyns, Pont de L'Archêveché

Watters Gallery 23 July - 16 August

Tracey Clement is an artist and writer