Northland

Sarah Gillett

Fri 03 Oct 2008 - Sat 15 Nov 2008

In medieval geographies, Northland is a distant place located beyond the borders of the known world. It is variously agreed that it may be an island somewhere in the northern hemisphere, and that on this island there lives a secretive colony of people called The Lays, half-creatures of tortured souls and lost dreams. Each is the only one of its kind.

The Fishmarket is proud to present the first major solo exhibition of new work by Sarah Gillett.

Sarah Gillett´s practice focuses on story-telling and visual narratives, exploring the relationship between landscape and the imagination. She appropriates fragments of myth and folklore, tales and traditions from her family history and material from antique reference books to construct new possibilities; new laws of nature. Through the use of common imagery she gives the viewer half-familiar visions and plausible experiences which add to the collective consciousness and make the fantastical real.

In Northland, she has redrawn the gestures and faces of characters in allegorical scenes painted by Renaissance Masters including Tintoretto, Cignaroli and Bartoleme Esteban Murillo, as well as the English 18th Century history painter John Hamilton Mortimer. She has combined these images of transfiguration with studies of wooden animal carvings and Alfred Bayre´s 19th Century bronze Animalias to create a half-human, half-creature species. The premise and sculptures of Miss Grimbaldeston and Albert are derived from her mother´s remembered experience of visiting the village registrar and seamstress in 1950s Lancashire, from which followed the artist´s invention of Northland.

Since graduating in Fine Art (Sculpture), Sarah Gillett´s sound work has been broadcast on BBC Radio and she has performed and exhibited in group shows across the UK. Since 2000 she has worked with the British Council, organizing contemporary visual arts programme worldwide and delivering printmaking workshops in art schools and universities. Her print work can next be seen at
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, as part of the Small Publishers´ Fair from 24-25 October 2008 and she will be taking part in a major exhibition in LA in 2009. She continues to live and work in London.

Image
Nin, 2008 from the series Northland, Pencil on paper, 210mm x 138