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Packard Jennings

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Nationality
  
American

Name
  
Packard Jennings


Role
  
Artist

Education
  
Alfred University

Packard Jennings ArtSlant Packard Jennings

Born
  
1970
Oakland, California

Known for
  
Street Art, Conceptual Art, culture jamming, Sculpture, Drawing

Awards
  
Kala Institute Residency and Fellowship, Artist in Residence Sanitary Land Fill Company, Artist in Residence Headlands Center for the Arts, Artist in Residence Montalvo, Artist in Residence Djerassi, Artist in Residence Cite des Arts (Paris).

Unveiling of Vito Acconci sculpture by Packard Jennings at SFMOMA (Syjuco's Shadowshop)


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 affiliated with Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles, and Analix Forever in Geneva. He is currently working on a new series of emoticons based on the movie "Flashdance." His work is in the collection of di Rosa.

Contents

Packard Jennings ArtSlant Packard Jennings

Packard jennings introduces himself and the public energy art kit


Themes

Packard Jennings Packard Jennings the art of subversion Generation Bass

  • "Anarchism" – Jennings's work often deals with the philosophy of anarchism, how it's represented in the media, and the representation of a naive utopia primarily through primitivism, not to be confused with anarchism or anarchy.
  • 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

    Packard Jennings mediamontalvoartsorguploadsimages2010January

  • 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 a video surveillance camera mounted in a backpack.
  • Mussolini Action Figure – a packaged, vacuum formed plastic Benito Mussolini action figure, which Jennings left in an 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 $5.00" which Jennings shows at exhibitions.
  • A Day at The Mall – first in a series of small pamphlets which Jennings distributed both online and physically. The airline evacuation style comics depict everyday people erupting into riots and later forming primitive societies and have been popular on the internet.
  • Fallen Rapper Pez – hand crafted and cast Pez versions of Tupac Shakur, Eazy-E, and Biggie Smalls. These prototypes were sent to Pez Candy. Pez responded with the statement that "The Fallen Rapper Pez are not appropriate to our target audience of three to six year-olds."

    • Shopdropping

    Packard Jennings Electric Works Packard Jennings

    Jennings has made major contributions to the practice of "shopdropping" (a term coined around 2004 to describe the covert placing of art or propaganda into stores). The earliest in 1998 with his Walmart Project, which features 7 art products placed in Walmart Stores which are humorously critical of aspects of their business practice. Other Shopdropped works include: A Day at The Mall (pamphlet), Welcome to Geneva (pamphlet), the Anarchist Action figure, Walgreens Local Business Coupon, and the Pocket Survival Guide.

    Destructables.org

    In 2011, Jennings launched Destructables.org. The site states: "Destructables.org is an advertising free Do It Yourself website for projects of protest and creative dissent. The site features user generated step-by-step video and photo/text based instructions for a wide range of dissenting actions, including (but not limited to): art actions, billboard alterations, shop-dropping, protest strategies, knit-bombing, making protest props, interventions, methods of civil disobedience, stencil work, performative actions, and many other forms of public dissent – from the practical and tactical to the creative and illegal. It is a living archive and resource for the art and activist communities."

    References

    Packard Jennings Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA