My work explores issues of regression, vulnerability, and social behavior through interactive sculptures and performance events. The pieces have two purposes. First, they serve as ritual objects used in real-time dining performance events. They also exist as artifacts of that event.
Some of the pieces have a strong oral element resembling infant paraphernalia, while others are large and distorted, emphasizing the social act of being fed. Not limited to only acts of eating and drinking, my work continues to explore other social boundaries and interactions, pushing our notions of acceptable behavior.
I create environments with vessels, utensils and sculptures that challenge customary social behavior, pushing one's familiar associations while encouraging interaction. My work explores pleasure to the extreme - creating a world where sensuality and decadence can quickly turn to over-indulgence or awkward discomfort.
Jamin London Tinsel is an artist living in Portland, Oregon. She was born in 1975 outside of Philadelphia. She received an MFA in ceramics from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2007, and a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education with an emphasis in Sculpture from Colorado State University in 1999.
Jamin was a founding member of The Hall Gallery, an artist run studio/gallery space in Portland from 1999 until 2007. She currently maintains her own studio space in Portland, and is an active member of several local arts organizations.
Traveling, meeting people, and the beauty of daily ritual in various cultures have inspired her work. She has spent time in Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, Morocco, South Africa, Guatemala, and Mexico. An ongoing relationship with a group of Zapotec potters in rural Oaxaca has provided much inspiration to Jamin's recent body of work, which focuses on food and drink in performance art. Tinsel explores performative aspects of eating and drinking through social interaction and public use of her vessels and utensils.
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