Gillian Gambold

It is all about material....

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At no other time in history have we been subjected to such an abundance of visual stimulation. We are inundated with images, they flood our consciousness and invade our unfiltered senses. We cannot 'unsee' our fears when made manifest; a solitary click, a single swipe, and an alternative reality is confronted.

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How do we make sense of Art in this flux? Perhaps it is something akin to a punctum, a chance to be still and reflective.... to be drawn into the language of surface and material. Art is ultimately about exposure, a conscious choice made by the practitioner to elicit an emotion, to provoke a temporal relationship with an observer.

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My own work is rooted in figuration and human physiology, the internal landscape and intricate biological processes which silently drive existence. The desire to externalise the visceral is inherent in my painting and sculpture, and neither can be realised without recourse to the understanding of what materiality can contribute. The choice between materials involves a process of decision making, and I will often rework a piece a number of times, auditing and reflecting until a form of biological and spiritual symbiosis is achieved.

The spiritual aspect is more readily articulated in my sculptures, but it relates to a sense of life force, rather than religious iconography alone. I try to capture the essence of the singular entity, the cathedral of living tissue and the corporeal existence of the human body in my work.  

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