Conversation 04: Gerald Collins
we chatted with detroit-based artist gerald collins about the happenings and reaction going on at home, as well as the impact of the pandemic on his practice. known in some circles for his immersive light installations, gerald’s attitude towards making art is earnest and often introspective. active and social viewership within one of gerald’s spaces is without a doubt an experience that touches your core, even if only for a fleeting moment. i believe that dealing with trauma and the growth that comes after is an important and often neglected aspect of our social network. by sitting within ourselves for a moment and or outside of ourselves with others, perhaps we can find something lasting to fill that empty void. i hope this conversation finds you all in good spirits. be safe and healthy forever.
- cameron
Gerald Collins, The Unified Field.
Conversation with Gerald Collins (Transcript)
This conversation has been briefly edited.
Cameron: Okay, so Gerald... always a pleasure to be able to talk with you on a number of topics like we are always trying to do, but today I’m especially excited to have you speak more in depth on some artistic concepts that are driving your current practice, as well as how you’re dealing with the systemic racial and class issues that are facing the world now.
Gerald Collins: Alright, so first of all thanks for having me. Nox Library and Danielle and all that. But yeah, I’m doing good. It’s been a chill morning, I woke up and watered the plants and had breakfast. Just a normal day. [Laughs].
C: Awesome. I wish I had some plants to water. [Laughs]. So I’m very much interested in the ways in which your concept of the “unified field” that you have been exploring in your installation work has expanded onto your current practice, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps you could share with us what the “unified field” means to you and what projects you’ve been working on during this time?
GC: The “unified field” is like, for me, an all encompassing concept of life. Basically, I found this through mediation practices... like, I’ve been meditating for almost a decade now. I kind of naturally fell into the unified state after so many years meditating and centering. It turned into this thing where I was able to dissect it and apply that same type of concept to the ethos of my work. But it’s more of the driving energy behind the artwork; a sort of umbrella term for the work. As far as the pandemic, that has diversified and amplified my practice. It forced my hand on ideas that I have been working with for the last year and some change. I have always wanted creative freedom honestly; and I am blessed to be able to use my skills to amplify that in difficult times like this. I have always worked in multiple fields simultaneously so this is just like pre- COVID but amplified by like 5000. [Laughs]. It's all about growth, sustainability, freedom, and knowledge.
Gerald Collins, The Unified Field, 2019. Image courtesy of Gerald.
C: [Laughs]. Yeah, I definitely get you with that. Working and making money is super hard but also essential to maintaining ourselves during this pandemic. Fortunately I was able to get some benefits, but not everyone is that lucky at all, which is a shame honestly. But anyways, I’m curious as to how you see color, light, sound, and all these other mediums you compact into your artwork... like do these expand on your own meditative process? I feel like experiencing your light installations, for example, sound and noise plays a huge role in the experience in addition to the other spacial relationships. Would you agree?
GC: Yeah definitely. My meditative practice has evolved over the years based on whatever frequency I am on. Like last summer I spent a week in St. Thomas and did sun meditation on the shoreline alone everyday at like six in the morning. That was an evolution point for me. As for the mediums, they are like branches to a creative tree, for me. Take away one branch or add one branch; it changes the viewer's experience of said creative tree. Space, for me, has always been this thing that’s an infatuation. It started with architecture. With having that inspiration and also learning to understand and studying architecture in my spare time, came the beginning of my infatuation with space. How to use existing spaces and architecture to move people, or to make them move, or to guide them. I want to design spaces for people. That’s kind of an everlasting dream and goal of mine. But sound is the underlying part of everything essentially. It’s very important to the totality, as far as the experience goes. Sound ultimately unlocks another level of consciousness. As you absorb sound, your brain is processing every layer. I’m just trying to continuously open my mind and hopefully help others open theirs in the interim. The work is less about what I’m trying to express but more about the viewer’s subjective and exclusive day to day experiences.
C: I’ve heard you mention before that you seek to “give people the tools to open otherwise closed doors so that they can then open doors for other people.” Is this a major driving force behind your work?
GC: Yeah, I would say, there’s a lot of theory in the work that people have told me they resonate with, in person or via social media. I have had people come up to me at exhibitions and thank me for creating the work because it somehow connected to their personal lives and helped them through tough situations; which I always accept with the utmost gratitude. For me, one of the most important things is making artwork truly for the people. No object, no ego, no filler, just pure expressions to share.
Gerald Collins, safespace?, 2019. Architectural light installation in Detroit, shot by Dominic Palarchio.
C: Your recent work immediately calls to mind Kandinsky’s color theories from the early 20th century and how color creates types of conscious, subjective experiences within the viewer. Like sometimes color has a sound and noise or a smell and a taste. Kandinsky was very much invested in the therapeutic nature of color too. Do you see yourself following a similar artistic path? Not to mention the contemporary artists, James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson.
GC: Yeah I love Kandinsky man. He's Bauhaus alum too which as you know, has been a huge inspiration to me for like 7 years. The color stuff started with not only my random interest in color but with my studying of Kandinsky, of Albers, or even of Picasso. I’m a big fan of art history. I also have a very solid understanding of color due to my design practice. I have to understand how to use color to design solutions for clients. I don’t see myself leaving a legacy to the likes of Kandinsky, but I do know I am working to leave a legacy that is for sure informed by the greats, authentic to me, and equips my loved ones with sustainable situations and real shot at whatever they want to achieve in life. But even with the likes of Turrell, you know personally, I love his work. He was kind of a natural thing that I was put on. I found him actually through meditation. Turrell and I actually share a similar inspiration from flying on planes.
[Laughs]
C: I’m in front of some of the accompanying books you produced for The Unified Field last year. They kind of seem like take-home “experiences” if you will. Like, I’m chillin’ right now and flipping through both the warmer hued and cooler hued books. Each kind of has its own feel and will likely induce a lot of memory associations for people, as it did for me, as they flip through them. I feel like all I’m missing is a take-home sound piece. [Laughs]. Do you have future plans for more sound projects in the future?
Gerald Collins, Following You, 2020 Architectural Light Installation
GC: [Laughs] I mean yeah! Possibly. There’s nothing off the table for me.
C: I’ve also been informed of your recent representation through Everard Findlay out of New York City. Has that been keeping you busy? Any projects in the pipeline you wanna speak on? If you want to be hush about it too, that’s totally fine. [Laughs].
GC: [ Laughs] Yeah, I’ve been blessed enough to secure representation. That’s new for me. I never really announced that anywhere so this is the first spot publicly. I have a lot of diverse projects in the pipeline. I will say that there’s a plan to do a large scale installation at some point this year. Location undisclosed for now. [Laughs] Lots of creative consulting, designing, and art direction work. There’s a lot of different things, I guess. I’ve been recently tapped to do a fashion project with Carter Young. Which from what I understand will be in front of many eyes including some from the CFDA which is surreal for me. It's like the universe is just answering to every creative thought I want to pursue. There may even be some more sound pieces at play. [Laughs]. I’m just flooring it bro. Working in many different fields trying to be a swiss army knife.
One thing I am excited about that I’ve been working on during the COVID-19 shutdown for the people is the new digital experience. These digital experiences relate to my previous work in that they are non-object driven. But in this case, not having an object allows me to make autonomous art; done remotely, that is truly for every person of any age. COVID basically forced me to rethink the current structure of the artworld. Like post-COVID even. So I am using my design brain to kind of reshape the model in which I work and how I present the work until we can show again. I’ve been developing these that will be out sometime very soon. Even this summer. But, really, for me, it’s always about divine timing. Nature is never in a hurry yet everything is still accomplished; one of my favorites. [Laughs].
C: It’s almost kind of unavoidable in this conversation so I’m gonna just ask it. How have you reacted as both a human and a creative in the times of police brutality and racist murders of Black people? I know the George Floyd murder woke a lot of people up on my white, suburban familial side. It’s like they thought that systemic racism was over or something.
GC: Yeah so with that, I responded kind of... I don’t know. It was a myriad of emotions when I seen that. These things have always been going on...they’re not new. They have been going on for generations. I would say though that one, on a personal level as a Black male, it’s been very weird to deal with. But I have been using my platform, my knowledge and skills to help directly and create solutions that will help my community for years to come. Whether it is providing sustainable opportunity, monetarily, speaking to inner city youth trying to show them another way out, giving them access to knowledge if they happen to be less fortunate, literally whatever I can do to help. We have to fight to make sure our children can walk through a better world than the one we are in currently. As an artist...I kind of had to put a pause on speaking about any work for a minute and just speak to these issues. I have not released projects I’ve been doing because I needed to speak on more important things going on in the world. This holds more weight to me than me just putting out artwork. So yeah.
C: Do you have anything in mind you’re planning on in terms of like, artistic production, in response to all these things? I know you literally just said you kind of paused on releasing work, but perhaps you have something in the works, right?
GC: Yeah, I definitely never stop creating. Although I have not been as active as far as releasing or speaking about artwork right now plus I’ve been off the grid for like the last 2 weeks hiatus [Laughs], I have been active in other ways. There’s also a few things that I’ve been sitting on from earlier this year [before all the social unrest and the pandemic] that I plan to eventually release. But it has to be divine timing. There’s really no telling when is the right time to stop creating and then release the work. [Laughs]. I don’t know. It has to be divine timing.
C: Damn man, we’re out of time. [Laughs]. We can pick this up later someday soon! As always, thank you so much G for giving us your time. It was a pleasure to talk like this. I mean it always is [laughs] but you know what I mean. Peace and love to you and your family. Anything else you wanna say?
GC: Yeah cool man! Thank you to nox library for having me. And thank everybody out there who supports my work too. And yeah, it’s always a pleasure brother. I’m sure we will pick this up like next week or something. [Laughs]. It’s all good! Peace!
End.
Gerald Collins (b. Detroit, MI) is an interdisciplinary artist known for constructing immersive environments, short films, publications and more that merge group viewership into a relational experience. Often incorporating non-tangible elements of light, color, sound, and scent, his installations posit a different type of materiality that builds the omnipresent structures of experience and total consciousness. While diverse in his medium, Collins has established an oeuvre that is heavily rooted in his consistent artistic approach.
Collins received a BFA with Honors from Oakland University in 2017. His studies informed his considerable experimentation in how light, color, and space can synchronize to enhance our daily lives. Collins merged his artistic experiments and design studies to produce Landscape, which awarded him the Best in Show for the School of Art and Design at Oakland University in 2017. He has created installations for public spaces in Detroit, such as the Eastern Market and The Siren Hotel; in addition to operating as a creative consultant for music, marketing, and fashion agencies based out of New York and Los Angeles. Recently, Collins presented his latest light exhibition, THE UNIFIED FIELD, at Galerie Camille in 2019.
You can see more of Gerlad’s work at geraldtcollins.com
This conversation is a feature of Pressed Coffee 09. If you would like to make an anonymous comment or correction, please fill out this Google form. Note that these comments and corrections may be shared with the readership.
Comments, corrections, and inquiries may also be directed to noxlibrary@gmail.com
