Archived: John Jennings Mar/April 2010
Interview with John Jennings to coincide with his 2010 gallery exhibition.
1) How did you create the originals of the prints in the gallery? Are they a combination of hand printed and computer manipulated?
JJ: The work is totally digital. There aren't any traditional originals. I am very influenced by various types of printmaking...particularly woodcuts. I try to emulate that style in the work in contrast to the obvious references to higher levels of technology.
I use both found and self-generated images along with Painter and Photoshop for the renderings.
2) What literature influences your art?
I am very influenced by science fiction, comics and sequential art, and horror/speculative fiction and fantasy. Some of my favorite writers are Octavia Butler, Tananarive Due, Brandon Massey, Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft. Edgar Alan Poe, Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson, Clive Barker, and H.G. Wells.
3) Your art seems to combine historical figures with futuristic technology. What do you feel that your images communicate about time and race?
4) Have you seen the new Erykah Badu album? (it looks kind of like your art)
Of late I have become very interested in the subculture of Afrofuturism. Basically, the culture's ideology combines sci-fi with critical race theories. Afrofutrism looks at how Black people see themselves in the future and in what context. The culture has a musical component, a literary component, and an artistic component. It deals with combining racialized events from the past with specualtive fiction or magical realism in order to find dialogues to deal with the spectres of slavery and degradation that still haunt us today. Some figures in the movement are Sun Ra, Mendi and Keith Obadike, Octavia Butler, Kool Keith, the RZA, Nalo Hopkinson, Saul Williams, Sanford Biggers, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Afrikaa Bambaataa, OutKast, Janelle Monae, and yes..Erykah Badu.
Yes, I am a big Erykah Badu fan...she is definitely referencing some of the Afrofuturist tenets in her own work..especially some of her album art and videos.
5) What classes do you teach?
I teach Image-making..which is an illustration class for sophomores in graphic design. I also teach Design History Survey. I have also taught special topics courses on Visual Literacy, Hip Hop and design methods, and a class on ethics and critical design pedagogy.
