Artist Statement
glenda drew is a critical maker whose research is based at the intersections of visual culture and social change, with a particular emphasis on the working class. The content of her work is rooted in creating messaging with greater social implications, fostering innovation and encouraging behavior change. Her subjects include country musicians, waitresses, feminists and precarious workers. In addition, she has recently created a few projects that consider climate change through user interface and artistic installations. She approaches her work with an organic sense of play, exploration and curiosity tempered by the design discipline with the goal of making meaningful work. Past projects include Paper Tiger TV-ROM, Hands That Feed and Out of Bounds. Her current work in progress is Stories of Solidarity.
Previous Work: Paper Tiger Television
In 1993 I joined Paper Tiger Television (PTTV), a media activist collective that exposes and challenges the corporate control of media through use of creative, friendly, Do It Yourself (DIY) visual tactics. According to the Fales Library of New York University (NYU), Paper Tiger’s work was an “explosion of artistic creativity (that) radically challenged and changed traditional literature, music, theater, performance, film, activism, dance, photography, video, and other art practices.”
Previous Work: The Hands That Feed
Hands That Feed is a series of five trading cards that consider and celebrate the role of immigrant labor in the US food economy. Hands That Feed considers the cultural role of trading cards, such as baseball and Yu-Gi-Oh!, to commemorate cultural heroic figures, both real and fictional, and creates a cultural narrative. Combining labor statistics with scratch‑’n‑sniff technology, the audience is invited to “take one, collect all five,” and experience an olfactory sensation while considering role of immigrant labor.
- glenda drew, University of California, Davis, USA arts.ucdavis.edu/faculty-profile/glenda-drew
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