JAKOB JØRGENSEN

Artist and designer Jakob Jørgensen (Danish, b. 1977) takes a hands-on approach to material investigation, both in his sculptural and industrial design practices. Through his manipulation of forms that are not easily pliable, he explores concepts of resistance, engaging in a deeply personal and all-encompassing process of give and take with the medium to reveal its essence.

While beginning his career trained in painting and stone carving, Jørgensen has become well established as a designer. His goal with any material is to investigate the full breadth of possibilities it offers, allowing him to arrive at his own unique synthesis of matter and idea. Recently, he has turned his focus to manipulating steel pipe as a medium for sculpture. In her essay Adaptive Growth, Rebekah Frank writes of Jørgensen, “His current sculptural exploration begins with lengths of low carbon steel pipe, a material that is the backbone of industrial applications. Within manufacturing, urban planning, and agriculture, these pipes are known for their durability against stress, fatigue, and breakage. Taken out of context, they are recognizable as an industrial material, but under the pressure Jørgensen applies through torch and tooling, they transform into monolithic columns, inviting closer inspection and a rethinking of the medium.”