Packard Jennings

Infobox Artist
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name = Packard Jennings


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birthdate = 1970
location = Oakland, California
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nationality = American
field = Street Art, Conceptual Art, culture jamming, Sculpture, Drawing
training = MFA New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, BA San Francisco State University for Sculpture and Animation
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awards = Kala Institute Residency and Fellowship, Artist in Residence Sanitary Land Fill Company, Artist in Residence Headlands Center for the Arts,

Packard Jennings is an American artist (b. 1970) who appropriates pop culture symbols and references to create new meaning using a variety of media including printmaking, sculpture, animation, video, and pamphleteering. In his early career he modified billboards, a common practice of culture jammers. He is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco.

Themes

* Anarchism - Jennings work often deals with the philosophy of anarchism, how it's represented in the media, and the representation of utopia primarily through anarcho-primitivism

* Consumer Culture - Jennings has created a fake corporation, the Centennial Society, as well as entire bodies of work that served as criticisms of Wal-Mart, the tobacco industry and the commodification of dissent.

Notable Works

* Anarchist Action Figure - a boxed, cast plastic anarchist action figure complete with molotov cocktail and dense, academic language about destroying the state on the outside. This was placed in a Target store and purchased in December 2007. The event was captured with video surveillance camera mounted in a backpack. [Ian Urbina, The New York Times, December 24, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/us/24shopdrop.html]

* Mussolini Action Figure - a packaged, vacuum formed plastic Benito Mussolini action figure, which Jennings left in a Upstate New York Wal-Mart and later had purchased. In a video of the event on Jennings website, the clerk can not scan the item, so manually enters "MUSSOLINI $5.99" which Jennings shows at exhibitions.

* A Day at The Mall - first in a series of small pamphlets which Jennings distributed both online and in the real world. The airline evacuation style comics depict everyday people erupting into riots and later forming primitive societies and have been popular on the internet. [Mark Frauenfelder, August 20, 2007 BoingBoing http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/20/packard-jennings-bus.html]

References

External Links

* [http://centennialsociety.com/durham.html|Packard Jennings Website]
* [http://www.cclarkgallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=42&Count=0|Packard Jennings page on Catharine Clark Website]