‘I make art in order to get under the skin of a place’,

Gillian Cooper is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work encompasses drawing, print and installation, which excavates that which is intangible, hidden or often overlooked.  

Gillian is drawn to the everyday and the found or domestic object, material or process and to natural history and natural phenomena.  In her work she seeks to express wonder at the capacity of ordinary things to act as poignant metaphors for deeply personal and collective experiences and emotions, such as joy and loss, beauty and abhorence.  When examined using her particularly stark, semi-figurative language of mark making, these subjects become subtle symbolic devices that point to wider social and political issues such as gender inequality or migration and extinction.

The physical space of the work is crucial, whether on a paper surface or in a derelict room; she responds to the inherent history or physical characteristics of place or object, siting drawn or sculptural marks with careful consideration of its contribution to meaning.

Images reflect a process that often manifests as interrupted, half-made or undone, implying transition, exploration or absence, which serves to unsettle the viewer but at the same time allows an authorship to their reading of the work.

Gillian’s works are hand made, the most direct and tactile gestural expression and even work in a series has slight variation, referencing difference, the hand-made gesture and above all, that which is human.