Gigi Janko

MFA Sculpture

Missing:

tan 5x8 toiletry pouch with a bright color zipper containing blue pieces of cut up stuffed animal, needle, thread, small blue and white scissors, and 18 inches of sewn stuffed animal rope. If found, please message @gigijanko on instagram. Sincerely, Gigi Janko

I make installations. I make performers.

I work with found materials. Responding to what is present and past in my materials—including the space of exhibition—conditions the decisions I make. I actively pursue the direction in which the materials can push back, assert their desires, powers, and limitations.

My processes tend to be long and laborious, joining me everywhere I go. They become part of my life, often overtaking it. If the studio is a habitat for making work, my personal space, my wake, is my studio. Sometimes being an artist gives me permission to dive into immersive activities that I am drawn to somewhat inexplicably (such as tearing down houses). Sometimes a project feels more like an assignment from the artist-me to the daily-me (like sewing). Either way, and as they intermingle or integrate, this way of working enchants me and infuses my work with the intimacy of prolonged companionship.

My current work is focused on childhood reincarnated. I am interested in moments of recognition, of understanding and misunderstanding. I am investigating the tactility of traumatic afterlife, the experience of impacts and impressions, and the confusion that haunts and invokes imagination.

Stuffed animals cut up and sewn together into rope. Color coordinated in sections (from left to right): green, pink, black and white, blue, brown, red, and grey. The rope is looped repeatedly from the ceiling

Stuffed animals and thread looped to trace the inside of the letters "n" and "o." Entering the room, it reads "on." From behind it reads "no."

Establishing shot of 2 ride on cars, one black and one orange and yellow. They look spotted because of extensive hole saw openings, which were then stuffed with stuffed animal stuffing and re-capped with a melted hole

Details of the top of the yellow and orange car. Mirrored cursive script of the "o" and "n" in "done." The lettering is build up of layers of melted, dripping crayon and stuffing pellets.

Ceiling shot, split by sprinkler piping and bordered by a florescent light. Cursive lettering-made from melted plastic shavings, stuffed animal fluff and pellets-is attached to the ceiling.

Dream 1, Dream 2.
Ride-on toy cars, stuffed animal stuffing fluff and beads, crayons, heat.

The words "ready" and "done" are written on the ceiling in melted plastic shavings and stuffing and mirrored exactly below on the top of the toy cars, spelling the reflection in layers of melted crayon and stuffing pellets.

Window view of paper gift bags laser cut and hanging over a dividing wall. Variety of colors and sizes hanging from red party ribbon which spools and the floor beneath. Light casts shadows that show the cutouts.

Close up of a few bags towards the top of the wall. Lettering is readable as the series of questions asked at Ellis Island. Glimpse of how the light casts through the cutouts. Letters in the

Both Hands

My grandparents’ collection of shopping bags, laser cut with 29 questions asked at Ellis Island of all immigrants (including my grandfather, Dr. Albert Béla Janko). Balloon ribbon. Glass urn.