The interviews are conducted by VB Contemporary's director, Vian Borchert. Besides being a multidisciplinary noted international artist. Borchert has been a writer and art critic for over a decade contributing with art articles in a national online newspaper within the U.S.A. Borchert gets called upon to cover and write reviews for major retrospectives and exhibitions in world-class American museums. Borchert is also the Art Lead / curator of the art segment for "Oxford Public Philosophy Journal" for the Turn 5 issue - "Oxford Public Philosophy" is a philosophy journal based at Oxford University, UK. The journal is a space for critically questioning what philosophy is and how we're doing it, in form and content.
Interview with Jessie G Gordon
Jessie G Gordon
About the artist:
Jessie Goldberg Gordon is a British visual artist / photographer who resides in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
As for Jessie's art practice, Jessie states, "in contrast to the speed of the camera which has become her notebook, the process of painting is a different visual-time interaction and technique. It takes time. Yet, by definition, a finished painting condenses time into one solid moment." In some of her mixed media works, the shadow and reflection photos are printed, often in a large format on Hahnemühle WT paper. Then with Acrylic paint, the image is sometimes accentuated, and sometimes extended further into the realm of ambiguity. An underlying notion is the regular return to the simple pleasure of shape, contrast and colour.
Tell us about your "Beginnings", how did you start your artist journey? How did your childhood influence your creative career path? And, how is your beginnings / childhood "Reflective" within your work?
That sense of being understood or miss-understood by others, the puzzling involved in decoding the world has troubled and fascinated me from early childhood. This partly came from the creative and questioning atmosphere at home with my parents, which was underpinned by two important subjects which were avoided and ignored. Firstly, my young architect father was a Jewish refugee who had escaped from Vienna, Austria to London, UK in 1938. Secondly, over the length of my childhood my father suffered from, a then almost unknown condition called Muscular Dystrophy. He finally ended up in a wheelchair and died in his early 60s. A child sees, feels, and intuits intensely - it is our means of survival. When these two pivotal subjects were glossed over the disconnect between what I perceived and what I was told created a strong need to not only understand the subliminal realities behind words but also to simultaneously make friends with ambiguity.
Initially studying the performing arts, I became a professional actor, a published writer and for a very short time a performing musician, all of which have had their important moments. But my constant and consistent companion and means of investigation have been and still are, drawing, painting and photography. The visual artist in me is the format I keep returning to; creating abstract visual statements which aim to ease the discomfort of not-knowing whilst inviting curiosity and limber perception.
Drawn to my father’s roots in mainland Europe I moved to live in the Netherlands in my late 20s. For a few years I earned my living as a cartoonist and illustrator, whilst simultaneously painting and mounting exhibitions. For me the satire involved in a figurative cartoon image has a fleeting satisfaction, and humor is in my view a pivotal element in navigating often bleak social and political subjects. But over the years I found that the canvas, paint and photographic image provides a much broader scope of investigation and means of interpretation.
Yellow Reflection
Walk us through your day from morning till evening along with your creative process? What does a day for "Jessie G Gordon" look like? Where do you find inspiration in the area by which you reside? And, What do "Shadows" mean to you?
Every day is for me a complex dance of when, what and how to take the next step with the piece I am working on. The elusive moments of decision into action can range from feeling lost irritation to certainty and satisfaction. Inspiration is certainly sparked by the obsessions I have connected to line, form, colour and light. Each day whether I am walking in the city, nature, a super-market, museum, art gallery, by the sea, along a canal in Amsterdam and more often than not sitting in my studio; a certain shape, shadow, reflection or shaft of light will regularly interrupt me. It will stop me from thinking about anything else except the need to capture it. Hence the photograph. Later, I return to these photos and play around with contrast, framing and color until the image settles. This photographic information very often acts as a visual notebook when I am painting. I am not interested in copying an image from one medium to another, but I find by ponding over and looking at my photos, it often has a subliminal influence on the choices I make later with paint on canvas. What I find particularly interesting with shadows are the grays which melt into black, the in-focus and the out-of-focus. Transitory shadow shapes emulate and distort solid realities. They not only imitate three-dimensional form but at the same time help to define it.
As an artist, what have been some of the biggest challenges you've faced in your career? And, what have been your best achievements for you personally and professionally? Who are your favorite artists and why do you find their art captivating?
As an artist, balancing demands and desires is an ongoing challenge. In particular dealing with the various kinds of thinking and concentration needed for different activities. The day-to-day practicalities of running a household, earning money, parenting, global politics and of course promoting my work have often been at odds with the mental ‘empty space’ that makes room for experimenting and creative innovation: going to where I do not yet know or understand. The word ‘Career’ is a strange concept it implies a certain linear progress. The drive to explore within the paradigm of perception and visual artistry is simply a way of life.
Professionally, my last and most recent painting or photograph is my best achievement. Concerning my respect for certain artists the list is long and diverse for that reason I would like to refer back to a short-list choice I made in a conversation with Manuela Klerkx: ‘The photographers Bill Brandt and Karl Blossfeldt had an early impact on how I perceive form. The lyrical lines and shapes of Gary Hume, Cy Twomby, Jonathan Lasker and HN Werkman; the pure power of Robert Motherwell, Richard Serra and Carel Visser; the painterly knowledge and exploration of Sean Scully and Howard Hodgkins and the guts and virtuosity of Louise Bourgois, Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread and Cornelia Parker. These artists all have something overlapping with my own visual investigations.’