Isla Phillips Gordon
Isla P Gordon obsesses over photography. Drawing on her experience as a transgender woman, Isla’s work explores themes of queer adolescence, trans- representation, memory and the everyday. Fueled by Instagram speed-scrolling, she bounces between photographic vernaculars, deliberately disorienting, flattening space, and questioning the rectangular frame.
Isla received an MFA in Photography and Related Media from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2017. Beginning in 2019, Isla expanded her practice into an on-going performance collaboration with Ashley Kaye entitled Milk and Honey, a flesh-centric endeavor that lampoons pop culture.
Isla’s work has been exhibited internationally, in the USA, Europe and Asia. Isla has performed at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and has been featured in Idle Class Magazine, Candela Gallery (VA) and Paradice Palase (NY). Isla is a 2019 recipient of an Artist 360 Grant.
PP: Where are you currently living/ working and what are you working on?
IPG: I am currently living in Bethlehem, PA. I was working as a gallery manager, but stepped back from that to focus on myself, and it feels great. I have been working on a project called Starter Home with my partner Ashe. We are mounting an exhibition of the work in October at The Banana Factory in conjunction with the InVision Photography Festival in Bethlehem, PA. I am serving as the juror for their competition, and will also be engaging in some of the other programming.
Starter Home (In Collaboration with Ashley Kaye)
PP: What role do you think artists have in society?
IPG: Truthfully, this is something I struggle with. There is one answer that I tell myself, and another that I would tell a student, or aspiring artist, and there is that nihilistic voice bolstered by my lived experience in the art world. I think if I had to be concise, our value is living authentically, sharing generously and being either a comfort or a thorn to those who need it.
Starter Home (In Collaboration with Ashley Kaye)
PP: Where do you see yourself as an artist in 5 years?
IPG: I have recently been exploring movement practices in my own life, everything from vogueing, to butoh, to pole dancing and am very interested in delving deeper into that. I am hoping to return to some old aesthetic frameworks, like Jerkbait, via some video work and get a little bit more abstract. I would also love to relocate closer to NYC or Philly as I really want to be in community with other artists more often.
PP: How do you balance your art practice with other responsibilities?
IPG: There is a delicate dance to it. I think that you have to be ok with your practice evolving, or priorities shifting. I like to think of my art practice moving through seasons, and now it’s in a sort of fall/winter vibe. I’m cleaning, and reflecting, sort of settling in for the winter and waiting for next spring. When I am at my most productive, my practice can be all consuming, so it has been nice to take a step back to work on a longer term project like Starter Home without real deadlines.
I also try to consider the relationship of art and life. My art practice was instrumental in helping me untangle my gender identity and deepen my relationship with my body but its role has changed. In this political climate, including my body in my art is increasingly an act of resistance. However, as a transgender woman, simply being visible is its own act of resistance. I feel as though lately my practice has been less vital, and more of an exercise, and I have been ok with my practice being more of a passenger in my life these last few months.
Starter Home (In Collaboration with Ashley Kaye)