Girls Pay The Bills Collaboration: Jakarta, Indonesia
Meena Khalili
Tags
Geographic location
Indonesia
Year
2019-2020
Description
In early Fall 2019, artist, designer, and educator Meena Khalili (Iranian American, she/her) and Jakarta street artist group Girls Pay The Bills embarked on a small, but important collaboration. Across their countries, overcoming internet, bandwidth, and output abilities, Khalili and the GPTB artists developed a simple but striking and colorful poster at roughly A0 scale, which was wheat pasted through the streets of Semarang, Jakarta, and Yogyakarta to highlight and call to action the need to “= Pay = Rights, Parenting: Deeds Not Words” calling attention to the struggles of those who do not have equal rights to live, equal rights to monetary compensation for their labor, and who disproportionately shoulder the burden of parenting, but have little to no right to speak about their needs.
Links
Acknowledgements
Girls Pay The Bills, who are comprised of anymous guerilla artists.
Biography
Meena Khalili is an associate professor of design and interaction who makes daily drawings of things. She is a recipient of consecutive International Design Awards and the National Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Graphic Design by the Southeastern College Art Conference. She holds a BFA in Illustration and an MFA in Graphic Design from VCUarts. She was named a Global Top 30 Design Lecturer by The Design Kids in 2023. An ardent supporter of design education, from 2020 to 2022 Meena led the National AIGA Design Educators Community. She maintains an international speaking and exhibition schedule with work shown at the Type Directors Club, Chicago Design Museum, and galleries throughout Italy, North America, Asia, and Europe. Meena’s work is in permanent collections around the world and the Library of Congress. She is featured in Issue 05 of The Great Discontent. Her research is driven by her experience as an Iranian-American and daughter of a small business owner. Her work explores cultural identity and generational storytelling. Khalili currently teaches at the University of South Carolina School of Visual Art + Design in Columbia, South Carolina.