I'm posting this separately from the column and in addition to artist Gigi Janko's replies to my emailed interview questions.
The bare winter trees seem to fit the mood of Gigi Janko's landscape. Perhaps, when the trees bud and leaf out, they will add an element of hope. In the background is a hillside on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River.
Raw emotions expressed in words, religious imagery, crows in flight .... the setting of Gigi Janko's art installation invites viewers to do some soul searching and perhaps to reflect on their own demons.
Printed signs posted throughout the grounds of Gigi Janko's installation entitled But I Misunderstood serve as narration — or perhaps subtitles. She opted to add the signs to help make the work more accessible to viewers who might not grasp the abstract aspects.
The view from Riverside Avenue and Eleventh Street — to the right is a walkway along the Ohio River. Artist Gigi Janko adorned the former grounds and parking lot with construction debris as part of her overall statement, an inspiration that came to her while she was dismantling the rectory.
The disused Immaculate Conception Church, rectory and grounds circa 2013. When the church was built, in 1927 more than 8,000 souls called the Village of Wellsville home. A hundred years later the population had dwindled to 3,000. Gigi Janko bought the property to create a public art installation and practice her art on a big scale. (Google Maps Image)
Trauma manifested in a big way. Gigi Janko turned an entire block — including this former rectory — into a public art installation along the banks of the Ohio River in the Village of Wellsville. The work speaks to personal and societal struggles in an uncertain world and time.
The materials themselves factored into the direction Gigi Janko's art installation would take. After stepping away from the project for more than a year, she went back to work and it took on a life of its own.
In an interview, she remarked, "Even if I could not make up my mind what to do with it studying the materials I had collected, and another project I was working on at the time gave me the idea to construct the interior in the literal manner that I did."
The bare winter trees seem to fit the mood of Gigi Janko's landscape. Perhaps, when the trees bud and leaf out, they will add an element of hope. In the background is a hillside on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River.
I noticed this small playground adjacent to Gigi Janko's art installation and regretted not using it to frame any of my own photos. Gigi had and shared this photo and others. It struck me that the artwork, with its dark emotional themes, might seem foreign to the world of a child. Then I realized — and shared that thought with the artist — that, even as young children, we experience the same kind of fears and anxiety as our adult selves. (Photo by Gigi Janko)
Gigi Janko at work. Some of the materials she used for her public art installation were salvaged from fire-damaged houses. Her demolition work on the burned-out structures became part of the artistic process.
"These teardowns ... became a sort of non-official performance," she said. "People would drive by before work or after, checking in daily on my progress. It was a local phenomenon, a genuine specialty to see this small girl take a place apart bit by bit."
Messages of despair — literal and abstract — give viewers plenty to think about.
A sign on the Main Street sign of the former church, which now serves as a studio and part of an art installation, invites people to throw stones. The black panels affixed to the building are slate tiles.
A window removed from the former church rectory reveals some of the altered inner structure. In the spray paint around the window and repeated in various parts of the installation you can sometime make out the words that expressed how the artist felt as the work took shape.
"The spray paint reads, in very abstract writing, 'I don't know what to do'," she said. "Which is exactly how I felt about the piece at the time that I installed it."
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