AUX presents the work of Jenny Drumgoole, a video artist and accidental activist who has gotten involved with labor and morale issues with Philadelphia sanitation workers. The “Trash Collectors Ball” is part of an on-going series of radical and celebratory events bringing attention to various struggles of urban sanitation workers. Drumgoole was shooting a video on the streets of Philadelphia and asked her local trash collectors to help her with one of the scenes. The workers obliged, and were so gracious that Drumgoole decided to thank them with a surprise party with refreshments, snacks, and party favors. The event “Happy Trash Day!” was a success, and became a recurring phenomenon over the course of several months. Hovering between birthday party, hardcore fan club culture, and social practice performance like Mierle Ukeles’s “Touch Sanitation”, each party grew more wild and memorable than the last. As Drumgoole got to know the workers, she found out that Philadelphia’s sanitation union hasn’t gotten a raise or a new contract in more than five years.

You may also know Drumgoole from her foray into Paula Deen’s “Real Women of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Contest.”

Bio
Philadelphia artist Jenny Drumgoole inserts herself into marginal spaces for pseudo-celebrity within popular culture—most recently, by entering absurdly humorous videos of herself in a “Real Women of Philadelphia” online video recipe contest sponsored by Kraft. Her most recent video-based performance work involves the artist physically and virtually infiltrating competitive events with subversive art actions which question our obsessions with celebrity, desire, and the limits and illusions of individuality in popular culture. Drumgoole received her MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art in 2006.