Glenna Jennings
At Table
December 3, 2020–January 30, 2021
Artist Statement:
At Table (2005–ongoing) documents everyday spaces of expression and connection—dining rooms, kitchens, restaurants, bars, and coffee tables around the world. In locations including the USA, Mexico, Canada, China and Europe, I use my lens to navigate from a perspective that is local in depth but global in breadth. I have collected thousands of moments that capture friends, family, and erstwhile strangers sharing time around food and drink in spaces where I am also an active participant. My “tablescapes” offer subtle moments of drama and humor in which gestures, expressions and objects combine to perform as cultural artifacts and personal memories. I see the table as a space that can often transcend cultural barriers to become a place for authentic interaction. For an only child, these photographs have come to represent moments shared with an extended family that defies traditional definition. On a broader level, the work offers a unique visual anthropology of everyday moments shared by a range of cultures, while also addressing how photographs may function in the realm of history and memory. Though At Table focuses on places of access and abundance, the imagery often helps guide conversations around food justice and social equity, meshing with my work as a socially-engaged artist. Ultimately, this series aims to connect, rather than solely critique, aspects of the human condition that collide and converge in a familiar, everyday place —the table.
2020 was set to be a banner year for this series, concluding with visits to Berlin, Prague, New Orleans, Bogota, and beyond. Instead, I have had the opportunity to focus on moments shared close to home. The small, “safe” gatherings captured in newer work include small-town breakfast quesadillas, homegrown corn on the cob, a beloved springer doodle, and a re-discovered bubble machine. They offer moments of active togetherness in a time of necessary separation, social distance, and civil unrest. Each image has its own story, bearing a direct relationship to the unusual yet universal circumstances of our gatherings both in and out of doors. Rather than winding down in 2020, At Table acquired some new imagery that will serve as a reminder of the year we struggled—separately and together—to survive a global pandemic while putting food (and often drink) on the table.
Glenna Jennings is an artist and educator whose work includes photography, curating, and socially-engaged art. She is an Associate Professor of Photography at the University of Dayton, Ohio, and completed her MFA in Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego in 2010. She also holds BAs in English and Spanish from Pepperdine and a BFA in Photography from Art Center College of Design. Jennings has exhibited throughout the US, Mexico, Europe, and China. Recognition of her work includes several Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards and a Robert Rauschenberg Residency Award through Photolucida Critical Mass 2019. Her work resides within the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, AMNUA Museum China, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, and multiple private collections. She is actively involved in food justice issues in Dayton, Ohio and beyond, and was recently awarded the Educator Food Champion award at the 2019 Montgomery County Food Summit for her work with Desert Kitchen Collective.
Blue Sky Books: At Table - Glenna Jennings
At Table (2005–ongoing) documents everyday spaces of expression and connection—dining rooms, kitchens, restaurants, bars, and coffee tables around the world. In locations including the USA, Mexico, Canada, China and Europe, I use my lens to navigate from a perspective that is local in depth but…
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