Jenni Hensler

In 2017, Hensler presented her own first art exhibition, a multi-sensory live installation at New York's James Fuentes Gallery, titled Persona Somnia I (Latin for "Dream Persona"). The exhibition featured Spanish performance artist María Forqué suspended from the ceiling by a set of intricately knotted shibari ropes.[44][45][46] Hensler described it as "a visual, sonic and tactile exploration of a kaleidoscopic, fragmented self as it merges into a whole,"[25] and elaborated that "the exhibit explores the act of viewing as a reciprocal one... We experience ourselves as living mirrors of each other."[47]

Hensler is also a published photographer, working in 35mm film and primarily taking candid portraits of musicians or models in black-and-white or highly saturated monochromatic colors, and often utilizing dramatic chiaroscuro lighting techniques; her most recent commissioned photographic project was a series of portraits for Nasty magazine in July 2019.[48]

Hensler favors an aesthetic that projects female power, mystery, and eroticism. The outfits that she made as a designer and stylist alternate between or juxtapose voluminous dresses, cloaks, and sleeves, with bare skin and tight-fitting pieces in heavy-duty fabrics such as leather, latex, vinyl, plastic, and metal, often paired with large-sole boots or shoes, and accented with evening gloves, headpieces, veils, and/or geometric jewelry.[7][49][50] She has also fashioned wearable LED lights for multiple projects,[14][15][51] and has hand-painted directly onto fabric as well.[42] She has been said to create "witchy, borderline-spiritual looks [that] seem to draw inspiration from the occult, fetish wear, and fantasy."[25] Her designers of choice, who serve as influences on some of her signature looks, include Thierry Mugler, Maison Margiela, Yohji Yamamoto, Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester, and A.F. Vandervorst.[52][53][54][55][56]

The vision behind Hensler's clothing, videos, and art direction draws on and incorporates elements of diverse eras, visual traditions, and movements, such as magic realism and dark surrealism, esoteric and occult symbology, Japanese minimalism, ancient Egypt, and classical mythology, as various Greco-Roman motifs, shapes, and silhouettes appear throughout her work.[57][5] She describes herself as being inspired by the Jungian concept of archetypes that inhabit humanity's collective unconscious,[1] and she has said, "Creating a dream world in the waking world is a major part of what I like to do,"[25] "[m]ixing dreams with reality... One of my passions is to create ways to take others into this place. To open a part of the psyche and create a dream-like psychedelic experience which connects everyone using minimal elements."[1] According to one fashion commentator, Hensler "creates wearable works of art, melding mysticism and ethereal beauty with the strict order of natural science."[15]

• Official website