Black and white portrait of Jennifer Packer seated on a sofa, wearing glasses with a crossed leg and an arm stretched across the back of the sofa

Jennifer Packer

Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize
January 11–August 6, 2021
Profession
Assistant Professor, Department of Painting, Rhode Island School of Design
Project title
Fantasy in the Hold
Project description

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.