Chenoa Solis: You have an installation up that you have titled “worker”. Can you tell me a little bit about it?

James Gilbert: I was thinking about the economy a lot, just like everyone else. As most of my work addresses identity and I wanted to explore identity and the economy through a narrative of the labor force. It was important to me that individual labor is involved to produce an object – just like in garment factories. Garments, being a basic necessity that we all use but often forget that it is a product made by an individual’s hands. The more I researched, it seemed necessary to also explore the alienation of contemporary laborers, their invisibility within the process of mass production and the precarious nature of their employment made infinitely worse by the recent economic down turn. With the exhibition the worker is part of their environment – contributing physically and tangibly but also anonymously. There is no delineation in materials used to construct the environment, the workers, or their product. It’s all about an anonymous labor force.

CS: What’s gone into building this installation? It seems like a lot of …. material.

JG: I spend lots of time writing ideas and narratives, collecting news stories making drawings and maybe models before I begin projects like this. For this installation it was important that the entire environment be immersive where walls, ceiling, floor, figurative elements, everything was covered in used clothes. I estimate that nine to ten thousand individual garments were collected and used in the installation. It was a physical process, my hands were always swollen from ripping and knotting fabric, constant poor posture, breathed lots of fibers but it was important to understanding garment workers. I layered fabrics to create a specific textures and mood. All the figurative works were made in my studio and the remainder of the installation was made over several weeks while working in the space. Additional elements I made include video and four separate soundscapes.

photo by Sean MacGillivray

CS: And this included the sounds the birds would make outside the window. One must be in somewhat of a subdued environment to notice the sounds of  the birds nesting in the building . This makes me feel that this work examines isolation as well….

JG: It is an intentionally dimly lit space with mounds of clothes, figures with distorted postures and the soundscape. There is a certain amount of somberness and quietness to it, even with the soundscape. It suggests working conditions and a psychology of the workers.

CS: All of your projects expose your well-developed sense of humor. You bring lightness to the topics you examine. Would you say that you are objective?

JG: I grew up moving every couple of years, constantly being exposed to different ideas, people and opinions. I like to think that I am able to see many sides of an issue but know that we all bring our personal history to everything we see and do. I count on that. In my personal relationships I have two defense mechanisms: humor and caution. In my work I employ humor to make it available but there are always several things happening at once, always a social issue. I want to ask the questions and let everyone else bring their narrative to it.

photo by james Gilbert

CS: Are you afraid of what is happening to our society in the midst of the new social media wave?

JG: I think of our identity is being shaped so much in public now that perhaps we are playing to the celebrity of it – it is changing our personal identities and how we relate and reason with each other. But I can’t be afraid of it because I can’t stop its existence. I can react to it.

CS: You are bringing light to it. You are raising a question… What is the general reaction you get from most people to your projects? Are you looking for a particular response or are you performing an experiment?

JG: Performing an experiment can have drastically different results either planned or unexpected depending on how recklessly you approach it. I have learned to never look for a specific reaction because I never know what personal narratives people will bring with them when experiencing my work. To plan solely for a specific response would defeat the purpose.

CS: Your work as a whole is a dossier on the subjects like the lack of privacy, social media, over-regulation and it’s effect on us as individuals in today’s society. You’re like an ambassador artist in the fight for the integrity of individuality and privacy. Are you looking to build on this collection of rather comprehensive studies?

JG: I am interested in what makes us who we are, how our environment influences our narrative. Social media, reality television, overregulation, which I think of as removing common sense and sense of humor from our lives, they are so of the now and are certainly omnipresent environmental influences. It seems to have infinite possibilities to explore. Much of my process is internal and private, for me, it is more truthful. Reactions, decisions, behavior, are allowed a purer experience when they are anonymous, good or bad, and that is where I think true Identity takes place. There is still a lot that I would like to explore.

photos by James Gilbert

CS: In the past, you have repeatedly utilized materials that have transparency, plasticity. Will you return to this?

JG: I don’t want to ever limit myself but what I am working on now does utilize plastic among other materials.

CS: You are restoring the tangible connection between people. You must find it gratifying to connect with the observer.

JG: I think personal connection with others has a vital role in our emotions and existence, without it we become technology.

CS: Why do you think people are so willing to give away their privacy?

JG: Social media, 24-news cycles, glossy magazines, reality television – they all have the ability to force celebrity and a drive to be recognizable to the point where we are constantly branding ourselves like products for public consumption. The more willingly we give up our privacy it only becomes more definable information for others to use. I am exploring the psychology of why we put ourselves out there. In terms of consumers, we treat ourselves like products” …

Photo by James Gilbert, new project titled Social Foreclosure

CS: This spotlights identity issues

JG: I think we all have them – we just want to know that others have similar ones to ours.

CS: Your projects act as a visual Rorschach test and providing a starting point for the viewer.

JG: “ If you can connect with it, someone else will want to connect with it” …

CS: Is your interest in biographies and narratives a creative resource?

JG: I grew up in the arts. I took art classes, played instruments, participated in the theatre, made films. I wanted to be a part of everything in the arts and understand it. When I realized that it was a good way to explore ideas, to ask questions, to try to relate my biography to someone else’s – that is when it got really interesting. I am interested in people, why we make the decisions we make, how we relate to each other, the moments that create our identities. The only way I know how to do that is get to know the stories then find my own relationship them.

CS: Tell me about your video projects …

JG: I am currently working on a couple new videos and some have some extended projects that will take a few years to complete.

http://www.saatchionline.com/jamesgilbertstudio

Solo Exhibitions: (Don’t) Want to be Anonymous, I Know Everything about You and We Haven’t Met, The Privacy of Underpants, Warnings & Instructions, and Worker.