Artist Gemma Jimenez's First Solo Show Centers on Reimagining How We Move Through Los Angeles
WRITTEN BY Lexis-Olivier Ray,
Photographed by Ruth Torres
For artist Gemma Jimenez, moving through Los Angeles is not a passive act.
The person who commutes by bus for hours each day to clean houses for work will experience a much different Los Angeles than the person who drives from their house, to work, in their Tesla.
That's the crux of Jimenez’s first solo show at NAVEL, ‘From A to B and Everything in Between.’
The show is part of Level Ground’s Residency Season, a year-long program that gives “emerging artists who have been historically marginalized from the art world,” the opportunity and resources to create what is often their first solo exhibition.
Jimenez applied for the program “randomly” last summer and has been working diligently on a series of “experimental” videos highlighting “folks who move in LA without a motorized vehicle.”
“It feels good to find my people in the art world,” Jimenez says of Level Ground, during a conversation with Los Angeles based reporter, Lexis-Olivier Ray.
Born in Veracruz, Mexico and raised mostly in the San Fernando Valley, Jimenez works in a multitude of mediums, including sculpture, video and illustration in addition to working full time at Public Matters, a company made up of a small group of artists and planners who facilitate community engagement through media.
In their art practice, Jimenez’s combines their passion for advocacy work, transportation and urban planning.
In Jimenez’s world, a bus is more than a vehicle, it’s a “gathering place.”
“I think that comes from my experience [of taking the bus] and really taking that experience in,” explains Jimenez. “Sometimes you have commuters where you’ll always see them all the time and could catch up. Sometimes it’s just like random conversations and connections you make.”
As an avid bus rider who doesn’t own a car, Jimenez is drawn to random conversations that people strike up while commuting. “It’s nice to connect with people randomly…I love when those spring up because I feel like it changes the environment in a way, it gives you a sense of connection.”
For various reasons, connecting with community isn’t something that everyone can always do in Los Angeles. “L.A. can be very privatized, you know, there’s not a lot of public spaces,” Jimenez says. “And so sometimes there’s a lack of connection in that sense.”
“It really impacts people’s lifestyles and so I would love to see more people just take up public spaces and the streets and connect.” Taking up public space might happen at a bike meetup or a protest for Jimenez.
“People are connected in different ways in open areas” allowing them to have conversations in a way that is difficult to replicate on social media, Jimenez says.
In their Level Ground residency project, Jimenez continues to build on the idea of public spaces being places for interaction, while asking viewers to reimagine the way they move and take up open spaces.
“I wanted to create portraits of [people who use public transit] in video form,” Jimenez explains. “As well as connect them to the urban ecology of Los Angeles,” which include the skyscapes, various parts of the county as well as the natural ecology.
“There’s so much life in L.A. and it comes in a micro and macro sense,” Jimenez explains. People are obviously a big part of that, but so are the “critters” that move through the city and the coyotes that roam the hills and have found ways to sustain themselves despite the urban sprawl.
From ‘A to B and Everything in Between’ focuses on four different directions to contextualize Los Angeles; north, south, east and west.
Jimenez’s subjects include a nurse who lives in the San Fernando Valley. A person who currently lives in Leimert Park but has lived all over the county. As well as Leslie, whom Jimenez met through the Level Ground Residency Season. Additionally, Jimenez is documenting their own commutes on video.
“I've been traveling with them in the areas around where they live and took various [video] portraits of them,” they said.
Jimenez takes a “playful” approach to their videos, rather than a more traditional documentary approach. “I want it to be playful,” Jimenez emphasizes. “I want that liberty to put things together and play with them but also the freedom to come back and play with it more.”
As a video maker, Jimenez has struggled with the conclusiveness of video edits. “I’m just kind of coming to terms with the fact that no, I could have access to these mediums and I could go back and edit.”
Jimenez says they feel “very grateful” for the residence opportunity while also admitting that it’s been “overwhelming” to produce their first solo show. “I’m still trying to build my confidence and be at peace that I can create work and I can share it with folks.”
Jimenez hopes that their work will inspire people to think about how they move through Los Angeles. “I hope people think about the way they move as not a passive act, but a part of themselves that can really connect them to themselves and the places around them.”
Jimenez’s ‘From A to B and Everything in Between’ opens on March 17 at NAVEL in DTLA.
Lexis-Olivier Ray is an L.A based multimedia journalist, filmmaker and artist.
Ruth Torres is an LA based makeup artist, experimental artist, and performer