Janeen Gilbert

Injury At Track Level

Sculpture

2021

Janeen Gilbert, Injury at Track Level, 2021, concrete, rebar, metal, nails, screws, porcelain tiles, tactile flooring, shoes, tie, glasses, jeans, subway transfers

48’’x11’’x8’’ / 48’’x11’’x8’’ / 48’’x48’’x6’’ / 48’’x48’’x8’’

I have always been fascinated with what lies within — what lurks beneath the surface — what’s hidden from the world to see. My past works have peeled back the curtain on personal memories and experiences — marriage, divorce, motherhood, and childhood trauma — to reveal secrets, lies, pain, joy, and truths. Through an integrated methodology of awareness art and the affect of ‘modern ruins’, my new work will call attention to the common occurrence of suicide within the Toronto subway system. There are on average 33 suicidal attempts and fatalities each year — numerous people are affected by subway suicides — from the victim themselves, to their family and friends, to the TTC operator, the emergency responders, the TTC employees, and even the riders. A sudden bump, a lurk forward, a stillness — a realization, yet we carry on — we go about our day — constantly moving, seeking, striving, doing — oblivious, unheeding, even disregarding the tragedy at hand. In the name of aesthetics, convenience and efficiency, society often and unfortunately looks the other way.Over the past four years, I’ve been documenting subway platforms and walls — decayed and exposed — chipped concrete, holes, cracks, rusted metal, faded paint, splintered wood — clearly visible and present, yet temporal in nature. These walls, these ‘modern ruins’, emanate a ghostly presence — a memory, a portal to another time and experience. They contain numerous stories of sadness, hopelessness, dejection, and despair — that are rarely shared, publicized, or talked about. Instead, tragedies such as these are withheld, hidden, only to be recorded as data, a number, a statistic — indirectly in dialogue with and in comparison to the concealment of disintegrating platform walls with shiny new facades. By analyzing and appreciating these ‘modern ruins’ — these stories — we grant them meaning and remembrance. The work is quite substantial in size and weight — buildings blocks (or partially constructed walls — in the process of being put up or being taken down) that interfere with the space — that demand inquiry and engagement. Remnants of clothes, items from ‘the commute’, found objects, construction materials, for example, the tactile yellow flooring meant to keep TTC riders safe — will be concealed, yet slightly revealed. The sculpture aims to bring about social awareness — to take the perspective of and empathize with others, to honour those who have experienced such tragedies, and to mourn those who died. The forms will stand in for lives lost, the mislay of empathy and the rise of social consciousness.I gravitate towards geometric forms — clean lines and simplicity; tactile forms — intricate, layered and raw; sculpted forms — authentic, abstracted and implied; and purposeful forms — conceptual, personal, and embodied. I believe that materials carry with them their own unique voice and language — and that strong conceptual ideas can only be heightened and strengthen by the nature of the medium. With that being said, I have chosen to work with concrete — a building material — strong, raw, durable, heavy (literally and metaphorically), easy to chip away at, to mark, to score, to embed, and to emboss. The material speaks directly to the ‘modern ruins’ of the subway system and the aging subway platform — the underbelly — the grit behind the pristine facade. It is the material that caught my eye — that irrevocably drew me in — that for years made me get off at random subway stops to take photos — to document — to preserve the overlooked and the forgotten. I have embedded clothing items within the concrete — having them stand in for the human body — the lost and the dismissed. Metal rebar, construction materials, tiles, and yellow tactile flooring are also incorporated, fossilized, and embossed into the concrete. I’m allowing the off-casts to speak for themselves, to leave the reveal as is, to allow for unexpectedness, imperfections, and truth. Although the forms are heavy and weighted, they are not meant to be static — they can be stacked on top of one another, placed beside each other, leaned against a wall, exhibited horizontally and/or vertically. The work is modular, movable — the work lends itself to be additive or subtractive, and has the ability to change according to the space or environment it is in.

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Work by

Janeen Gilbert

Sculpture/Installation

“Injury At Track Level — a ‘modern ruin’ — a memory, a portal to another time containing stories of sadness, hopelessness, dejection and despair. Sculpted concrete forms, layered and raw, embedded and...” [More]