StoreNicolas Jenkins is a New York City based filmmaker and multimedia video artist.
While living in Montreal in the late 80’s and early 90’s Jenkins established a name for himself as a pioneer in the underground after hours warehouse party scene. The huge multimedia roving warehouse parties he threw allowed him to to incorporate all of his passions and research in pop culture back into the themes and decor. “Sex Garage”, the most infamous of his illegal after hours warehouse parties was violently raided by the police, is now often referred to as Montreal’s “Stonewall”.
Jenkins was active in Montreal local gay politics and AIDS activism during that period. His early 90’s zine FUZZBOX was another outlet where he could explore his fascination with sexuality, gender, and fringe cultures.
Between 2000-2002 Jenkins produced PRODUCT(Diary of a Disco Dolly), a monthly New York public access cable show that had been conceived as an “anthropological urban study”. PRODUCT featured a bevy of underground culture makers such as Anonhi and the Johnsons, Crutchmaster, Chicks On Speed, Click & Drag, Fischerspooner, Genesis P-Orridge, Gelatin, Momus, Patty Chang, amongst others.
Between 2005-2007 he collaborated with Genesis P-Orridge and their life partner Lady Jaye, creating videos inspired by their “Pandrogyne” project for Psychic TV’s (PTV3) live shows. In Genesis P-Orridge Jenkins found someone with a similar curiosity and passion in exploring gender and sexuality.
His short films and videos have been shown in venues and film festivals across North America and Europe, including the Paris Pompidou Center, Chicago Underground Film Festival, FrameLine Film Festival (San Francisco), Optica Festival of Video Art (Madrid), and Les Rencontres Internationales (Paris and Berlin). One of his videos is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery Of Canada and another was shown on PBS. His video work has been featured in Dazed & Confused, Huffington Post, i-D, Paper Magazine, Out, and Vice.
For the past six years Jenkins had been working on INVERSE/THE FUTURE IS OFTEN A STEP BEHIND, a large multi channel video installation project, which celebrates queer identity from a non-assimilation perspective. INVERSE is an ongoing project that is regularly being updated and refreshed with new content. There are currently 40 participants ranging in ages 12 to 77 years of age. Jenkins is in the process of transcribing the 100+ hours of footage as the goal is to later have everything accessible for research purposes.
I have nurtured a fascination with the global production and consumption of popular and fringe culture from a very early age, to the point of it becoming an obsession. To this day, it continues to be a source of inspiration for all of my artistic endeavors. I may have a very eclectic background but my interests and personal projects have always centered around and celebrated subcultures and the queer community.
I have spent most of my adult life exploring new ways of expressing myself through experimental films, short docs, roving thematic multi-media warehouse parties, queer zines, public access TV shows, video installations, and collaborations with other artists. Queer politics and popular culture are my spring board from which I reinterpret what I observe. I incorporate all of my experiences, research and observations back into my creative projects.
Since the mid 80’s I have been attending and documenting Voguing Balls. The Ballroom scene has always been inspiring to me because of the amazing sense of community I witnessed and by the way they celebrate and idolize some of societies most marginalized, especially trans women. My current project INVERSE/THE FUTURE IS OFTEN A STEP BEHIND is inspired by the people I met in that scene. INVERSE aims to shine a light on people within the broader queer community who lead their lives differently and have much to teach mainstream society.
My work has always been about celebrating diversity and the lives of the very people whose existence is subversive and threatening to the current status quo. My work expresses what I strongly believe: The fabric of human identity is cut from every aspect of life and that the human experience is not about homogeneity.