Jane Gillings @ NG Art, Gallery
Youthful Experience (detail), 2010, mixed media, dimensions variable
Come Closer (Now Go Away) is the latest solo exhibition by Jane Gillings at NG Art Gallery, Sydney. The work that forms this exhibition is the recycling of and engaging with – what some would call – hoarded waste. Gillings compulsively collects and, by her own admission, hoards before she reassembles by way of embracing and engaging with her creative impulses.
Gillings hates waste and disorder. Her studio is a refuge for perceived waste. Organised by size, colour and object, Gillings compiles objects from knitting needles, discarded board game pieces and small toys to indiscriminate incidentals from around the kitchen and second hand shops. It is at this point her art making practice launches.
Just like an abstract painter, Gillings’ sculptures are constructed, for the most part, through her response to the materials. In her own words, Gillings has “little influence on what it [the sculpture] will become until [she] start[s] to study its possibilities and limitations”.
The works in Come Closer (Now Go Away) expose the viewer to waste – is it their own? How do they conserve? What do they discard? It is the open ended questions that lure you in (‘Come closer’ and observe); But the abstract form that belies the work leaves open their interpretation – are they about the environment? Are they simply an indulgent, personal journey for Gilling to which we as viewers are privileged to view? (‘Now Go Away’ and contemplate).
The exhibition runs until 11 September at NG Art Gallery, Sydney
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