compactspace

Why not make another trip to San Diego for…

From Jacuzzi jets and irrigation ditches to dust storms and dead falcons, Glenna Jennings new exhibition Likely Stories and other sides sheds an altogether new light on the small border town of Jacumba, CA.

Known for its curing mineral waters, Jacumba was a thriving vacation spot in the 1920s. Thanks to various economic factors, including the construction of Interstate 8 in the 60s and the high-cost border wall in the 90s, Jacumba has become a peaceful if troubled enclave rather than a prosperous, overrun Mecca.

Since 2008, Jennings and her art collaborators have spent a lot of time in this spa town, moving back and forth over the boundaries that constitute insider vs. outsider research and art. Using an outdated analog technique popular for beer advertisements and kitschy wall decor, Jennings has customized a set of kinetic lightboxes manufactured in China with her own photographic documentation of the town. The result combines sculpture and photography in a manner that collapses the mundane and the sublime, loading spectacle with the charge of social and historical content.

Though Jennings touches on the trope of the U.S. / Mexican border, her work is more concerned with the eclectic histories of social phenomena like hydrotherapy and contemporary theories of the everyday. Both her written and visual works combine personal narratives with public cultures and information, creating a palimpsest that celebrates and questions the very nature of ‘The Story.’ Believing Michel DeCerteau’s assertion that “every story is a travel story,” she examines Space and Place in a context of alternating movement and repose.

Jennings’ book of the same title is an art object in itself, composed of images and ‘ficto-critical-creative-non-fiction’ writings. London-based designer Claire Waterworth (who spent a very inspiring New Year’s holiday with Jennings in Jacumba) is completing the book design for its July debuts in San Diego, Los Angeles and London.

As an artist, writer, curator, educator and director of the LA-Geneva art collective compactspace, Jennings keeps the rules to a minimum and the possibilities at an overflow. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S., Europe and Mexico, and will be featured in the upcoming exhibition Here Not There at MCASD (curated by Lucia Sanroman). Jennings is a native of East County, San Diego, where navigated a landscape of cheerleaders, chaparral, monster trucks and horses.

Likely Stories and other sides will be on display at the UCSD Visual Arts Facility Gallery from Tuesday, May 4th to Friday, ^{May 7th}. Please join the artist and her cohort for a reception on May 7th from 6-10pm. The celebration will feature a “marcuzzi party” in honor of the late philosopher and UCSD professor Herbert Marcuse.

She would like to thank the management of Jacumba Hotel Spa and Resort, Professor Lesley Stern, Giant Photo, San Diego Plastics, and the residents of Jacumba for their many contributions to her exhibition and book. All of these people have made her process possible on a very local and human level.