James Gilbert
Social Foreclosure
2012
Plastic, thread, wood, varnish, wax, fiberglass, aluminum
13 x 30 x 30 feet
I believe in making work that has a social reason to exist. The initial reason for making this installation was about social media, publicly sharing private information - making our bedrooms, intimate behaviors and stories into nomadic structures that are plastic semi-transparent camping tents, privacy freely and wantonly offered publicly. Building cities that have the ability to be easily deconstructed, travel and are accessible for mass public consumption. Modular forms, stacking as bunkbeds, allow us to quickly multiply and expand into larger tent cities. Now I think it has taken on a new meaning for me. Homelessness, income inequality, high cost of living in cities have caused tent and cardboard cities to multiply. Soon these tent cities will need to become high-rise structures to accommodate everyone. Los Angeles has nearly 60,000 homeless. Most all large international cities have homelessness.