At the heart of Gail Kotel’s work is a multi-faceted cornerstone: sustainability. On the surface, Kotel repurposes discarded takeout containers from Philadelphia restaurants, which have had to sharply pivot during the pandemic, leaning into a focus on takeout as a means for survival. Her work invites deeper considerations of the word sustainability, through the faces of restaurateurs and neighbors whose portraits make the containers no longer “disposable” objects, but rather testaments to resilience, community, creativity and personal connection. Her portraits pose a series of essential questions: “What is disposable? What is sustainable? How can the human face behind what we buy inform our consumer choices? What happens when sustaining beloved community mainstays means more disposable objects in our streets and landfills? These are not always easy or comfortable questions, which is why Kotel’s work has sparked meaningful conversations about consumption, community and connection.
Q: One of the things that really resonates about what you are doing with this project is the different shades of meaning around the word “sustainability:” the idea of sustainability in how we think about consumption and waste, but also sustainability in terms of your neighbors’ livelihoods and their businesses, creating a sort of duality to the word “sustainable.” What were your thoughts around this theme?
A: I think that this is a big dichotomy right now that’s interesting, that in order to sustain the restaurant, we were making more waste, and that was a big struggle for me. One of the struggles during the pandemic was trying to do more takeout and not being able to do anything about all the waste that it created, and that was when this pile of all of these takeout containers that I would wash was growing, and I thought, I have to do something with these besides recycle them, and there wasn’t really recycling going on either. The recycling trucks were just taking it to the trash, and it was awful. I would do all this recycling, and it would go into the trash. The way we are talking about it is critical because to keep one, you were hurting the other, and that happened overall during the pandemic, with plastic gloves, all the throw-out masks and everything else. There was more and more waste everywhere you went in order to save people’s lives and save people’s businesses. It’s the beginning of what drove the project; I started keeping all of these things, and it was the birth of the art pieces.
Q: When you were answering it made me think of what is or is not “disposable.” The containers for instance: you might not want to dispose of them, but they are physically piling up and demonstrating an impact. The pieces are a great way to convert and communicate that feeling of discomfort.
A: You couldn’t even at the time, if you wanted to get a cup of coffee, bring your own mug anymore because we didn’t have a sense of how things were being transmitted, and so in the past, if I had gone to a restaurant, I might bring my own takeout containers with me for my leftovers, and but then that wasn’t allowed.
Q: It makes me think of neighboring states passing legislation related to bringing your own bags to grocery stores, which just happened in Delaware as the pandemic hit, but then so many of us had to get groceries delivered or do curbside, and reusable bags were not an option, so in some ways we’ve had to take two steps forward, two steps back on making reusables part of our daily routine in order to be safe.
A: Definitely.
Q: I wanted to address what you aptly described as the dichotomy in your work first, but to also explore your background as an artist and your connection to the art scene in Philly specifically. What led you to this project artistically?
A: I’m from New York City originally, and I went to LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts, so I went to art school from a young age, and then went to art school for college, so I’ve been doing artwork since I could hold something in my hand. I moved to Philadelphia actually to go to physical therapy school, so that’s how I ended up here. I’ve always been kind of a found objects artist. You’re not necessarily aware that you’re doing something at the time, but when I look back, over all of my artwork, I tend to be someone who tries to pick things up. Growing up in New York City, trash-picking is an art form; it’s a thing to do – it’s not considered weird or gross. Finding your furniture outside – score! I look back and my materials, almost 100% for the majority of my work have been found objects, and that has always been a big thing for me.
When I was in college, I actually created the recycling program because they didn’t have one. I’ve been a staunch environmentalist since I was a little kid, and I was very upset to go to a school where I couldn’t recycle things, and it’s still there. My art has always had that duality to it, of taking something and repurposing, or upcycling to create pieces that become my artwork. That’s been a big part of my life and my journey as an artist, and before I started this takeout portrait series, I was doing a bubble wrap series, which I’m still doing. They’re on mailers, like when you get stuff from Amazon, the bubble wrap is on the inside, and it’s painted on the bubble wrap mailer, so it’s a 3-dimensional piece using the front and the back, and I’ve been doing those for at least 5 years. I do the mailers, and I do pieces that I’ve sewn onto found frames and that relates to talking about consumerism and packaging. Plus, it’s really fun too. It’s fun to have people looking through the bubbles.
Before that for about 10 years I did a series of pieces on old windows using found frames--so first I found frames with glass, and then found frames with bubble wrap, and now I’m really consumed with the takeout portrait series.
Q: I’m interested in how you’ve infused these things that we typically discard with humanity, and especially through the portraiture, emphasizing that these objects have passed through hands, including your earlier work with found windows. What got you thinking about found windows as a medium for these earlier projects?
A: One of the things I studied in school was print-making; I was a print-making and sculpture major. Again, I just looked for my art materials on the street, and I went from doing print-making to doing monoprints, which is painting on glass, and then you pull a print from the glass. I was getting frustrated because I didn’t have a press in my studio, and there would be so much loss of paint from the glass to the print itself; there was always so much paint left because I didn’t have a press that would really pull my printing. I started painting on glass and not doing prints anymore, and that was the genesis of starting to work on glass, and I couldn’t imagine buying glass when there was glass everywhere, so I would just find my glass to paint on, and windows were pre-framed – they were there, they were available, and I started hunting for windows. After a while, people started to know that that was my work, and I had had a bunch of local shows, and I’d come home and there’d be a stack of windows on my porch from construction workers who somehow got the word that I paint. I have no idea how, but it kept happening, and even though I’m not doing them anymore, I still get calls and emails from people saying, “I have these windows, can you use them?” It becomes this wonderful thing with the community, where people want to help me recycle their stuff instead of throwing it out, which is really great.
The same thing happened with glass bricks. I have a series on those glass bricks used in buildings, and again, construction workers found out about it and I started getting calls about them. With the framework I started using neighborhood pages to find frames that people were giving away, and now people who know me will sometimes find a frame and give me a call or a text, and that’s a nice interaction to have with my community as well.
Q: One of the things Philadelphia is known for is its community arts scene, which is often so driven by neighborhoods; your work seems to be really on the ground floor of that with this project. Can you speak to that? Where do you see currents in the art scene in Philadelphia going, and what’s inspiring and interesting you now?
A: One of the ways that I’ve been able to get to know my community and the reason I’ve been able to be so engaged is because I’m a physical therapist and Pilates instructor. I would teach in the gyms to keep up with the community before COVID, and I’ve been able to get to know so many people that way. I’ve gotten to know so many people through my practice and having them know me in different ways--as a teacher, a physical therapist, as an artist. I’ve been able to feel really plugged in to people much more than I would have been if it was just as an artist. A lot of the people I’ve painted have been my patients, so there’s an intermingling of those worlds for me, and that’s true in terms of the community, with them coming to my openings and supporting my work, being involved with me finding materials and all of that, so everybody is kind of in that world as well. So, I feel like I probably know more people through that part of my life.
To answer the second part of the question about the Philly art scene, because of COVID, it had been shut down, and I’ve been plugged into the digital art world right now. I’ve been in a few local digital shows and some in other parts of the country. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen with the galleries when the smoke clears. So, I’m not really sure where Philly is right now in that world, and it feels like in general the art world is in this really transitory place.
Q: Are things percolating for a future project, or is it too early to say?
A: The irony though is that this project will end as things open up, and I want things to open up. The necessity for the project though is diminishing as more things open. I don’t feel like this one is complete; it doesn’t feel finished yet. I just finished a portrait that is drying and then I’ll be able to take it to the restaurant, and then, I don’t know. I feel like the materials make my projects more than me deciding what I want to do, so I’ll open a package or see something walking down the street and the project will occur in my brain, and then I’ll make it, so I’m really materials driven. There is a little percolation, but I’ve been really working on the takeout portraits.
As we look forward to Gail Kotel’s latest projects, find out more about her Takeout Series and earlier projects:
Hochman, Anndee. “Drawing new lines for Philly restaurants and environmentalism with Gail Kotel’s ‘Takeout Series.’” (14 Apr, 2021). Broad Street Review. https://www.broadstreetreview.com/wnwn/drawing-new-lines-for-philly-restaurants-and-environmentalism-with-gail-kot#
NBC 10. “Take Out Portrait Series Spotlights Philly Restaurant Workers.” (18 May, 2021). Philly Live. NBC 10 News.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/entertainment/philly-live/take-out-portrait-series-spotlights-philly-restaurant-workers/2818675/
Zimmaro, Mark. “Art as a way of backing small businesses.” (6 Apr, 2021). South Philly Review.
https://southphillyreview.com/2021/04/06/art-as-a-way-of-backing-small-businesses/