12 Questions for Jia Tolentino - by Gordon Glasgow

Conducting these interviews brings to mind the feeling of playing tennis. I reach out to the artist, and, depending who they are, they tentatively or enthusiastically respond. The back and forth continues for a little while before I eventually send the questions. Sometimes I speak to the subject and am able to get a sense of them outside of their work, other times I only have the work itself to judge, as well as whatever snippets I can find on social media or from previous interviews. Based on this ‘research’ (which I think is a word that’s abused) I’m able to study how my subject, the artist, who in a way is now my opponent, might answer or react to certain questions. We’re both siloed, alone on opposite ends of this bizarre psychological court, and then at the end an interview is produced. Unlike tennis, there’s not really any winner or loser. I think the subject and I lose together, because we’ve created something and then feel depleted afterward, the postpartum of artistic producti

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• Michelle Gan