MRJ: For me, it raises the question of who my people are. I started this conversation by saying I have mixed feelings, and that’s part of it. I thought I knew who you were, but now I feel a little lonely.
I keep watching the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) because it resonates with the idea of the pod people. The Pod People idea is the idea of people doing the same thing and trying to make you like them. Some of me was like, ‘I can’t trust anyone because they might pull me into the pod people. I was a pod person before. I know I can be contradictory, so I also see how people are contradictory, when I see other people who don’t realize how contradictory they are Ideas are constantly brought to us from culture, politics, etc., and we are deliberately left uninformed and confused.
JS: I have always welcomed erasures and am always looking to change skins.There was an itinerant museum survey that started at Carnegie Mellon [in 2021] And when I went to that survey, I almost cried. A room full of works from seven years ago, completely out of context for me today. But they were part of me. I’ve spent seven more years making pieces that represent my stage now, and they speak to each other. What I have learned is to be messy. Everything can be recontextualized, so there is no such thing as a mistake.
MRJ: The hard part is when others try to impose on you evidence of what you said in the court of public opinion. [assessing] whether you are a hypocrite or not.
Social media culture is inextricably tied to what art and entertainment is made, how it is viewed, and how it is produced. Much of my voice as a writer was developed on social media, especially Facebook. The box that says “What are you thinking?” I took it as a personal challenge. I have a catalog of all the thoughts I’ve ever had. I don’t know who that person was, which makes me cringe at times, but it was part of my growing up.
JS: So the world is suffering, especially after the pandemic, as many jobs have been lost and isolation has caused many mental illnesses. We are the revenge generation. [But] It leaves no room for the artist to grow. You’re eradicating problem people as if the people throwing stones don’t matter. But everyone does.
This interview has been edited and condensed.