Jan Gibert  is a lifetime resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her multimedia artworks are commemorative and most often deal with memory, loss, and healing. Gilbert cofounded the New Orleans-based artist/writer collective The VESTIGES Project as well as HOME, New Orleans?.

VESTIGES:  Think Tank currently is a 3-year roving residency sponsored by the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans in recognition and celebration of VESTIGES’ 25 years of working together.

HOME, New Orleans? is a community-based, arts-focused network of organizations, universities, schools, artists, and neighbors that brings diverse constituencies together to create positive change in New Orleans.

Additionally, Gilbert will be curating another  Prospect 1 parallel offering sponsored by the CAC and the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, at NCCROW on the Tulane University campus entitled  Loss. Ritual. Relic. Residue: The Archive.

Gilbert has taught art at Tulane and Loyola Universities and lectured widely on collaboration and transcultural exchange, public art, and artist’s books. Gilbert has been awarded numerous fellowships and project support from foundations (Ford, Warhol, Pew, Rockefeller, Pollock/Krasner) Foundations and The NEA, National Association of Artists’ Organizations, Louisiana Division of the Arts, The Trust for Mutual Understanding and Art Matters, Inc. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of New Orleans (1980) and her Master of Fine Arts degree from Tulane University (1982).

About Biography of a House

Her 300-foot long Biography of a House tells the tale through photos and sound of four generations’ 53-year occupancy of an ordinary Lakeview tract home (Gilbert’s  residence from her birth through the time of her marriage).  The work’s inaugural presentation laced the family home at the 8ft. floodline as part of LakeviewS, the June 2007 sold-out bus tour of art, performance, music and food.  See: Biography of a House [on YouTube]

The On Piety iteration finds itself as an upside down wedding cake chandelier - referencing upside down funnel clouds, spiral stairways to heaven, and much more.  The collaborative team responsible for this site specific reinterpretation includes On Piety artists  Napoli, Bowling and Carrico, as well as original collaborators Gilbert’s composer nephew (William Gilbert) and Helen, her 87-year old mother via audio recitation of her own poem “Rose or Blue.” Additionally, early photos and taped recordings made by Gilbert's (former Brooklyn Dodger and now deceased ) father are incorporated into this work.

Specifications

Dimensions: Circular metal armature diameter of 12 ft. (which breaks into two half circles) with variable heights, approx. 14-19 ft. Hoist provided.

Sound component: Speakers, dvd and dvd player included.

Light component: Lights (provided) attach to armature. Multiple mixed-media photo panels (varying lengths approximately 11 in. x 10 ft. each) attach with monofilament through grommets and are suspended from upper armature.

 

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