August 17, 2023, through February 11, 2024
Goodman Gallery
Jillian Mayer made this video as a future message to her unborn grandchildren. Tongue-in-cheek and wildly outrageous, I Am Your Grandma nonetheless addresses ancestry and identity through a depiction of personality and personae not visible on a family tree!
Mayer released the video on YouTube shortly after its presentation at the Borscht Film Festival in Miami, FL, for which it was commissioned in 2011. With a soundtrack that gets stuck in your head and quick-paced visuals, it swiftly went viral. By satirizing what makes for compelling viewing on a social media platform like YouTube, Mayer also questions the compulsion to post personal content online.
Shown above: Jillian Mayer (American, born 1984), still from I Am Your Grandma, 2011, video. Allentown Art Museum: Gift of Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz, 2019. (2019.29.4)
The Museum’s Video Art Series is made possible by the generosity of Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz.