Jennifer Packer
My project focuses on the social, political, and psychological implications of landscape and architecture on conceptions of individual, collective, and national identity, in relationship to African diasporic communities. Landscape is a term I utilize broadly to identify impositions (physical, historical) on our sense of belonging. I will develop a project beginning with the history of Italian East Africa and its dissolution by the United Nations in 1947. I will reach out to the contributors of Blackpost, an editorial project composed exclusively of first- or second-generation immigrants in Rome to begin build a network for discussion, translation, [and] documentation, eventually presented in a public format. I will also continue building an independent body of work hinged on the notion of familiarity and inclusion, based on my broadening exploration of the familiar yet fraught term “black subjectivity.” I will make large-scale paintings, drawings, and collages influenced by this research.