Chance to experiment
While lockdown came as a shock to Newbury artist Gavin Wilkinson, it provided him with the freedom to depart from his normal practice
...lockdown has given me the time and freedom to experiment with ideas that satisfy my own curiosity.
It’s nice if viewers respond to the work too
“I HAVE always considered myself a multi-media artist, having worked as a jazz musician and photographer, and trained as a sculptor, with a BA from Bristol Polytechnic and an MFA from Reading University. With over 60 exhibitions under my belt since the 1970s, lockdown came as a shock, since at first it appeared to bring any forthcoming projects to a grinding halt. However, for some artists it has proved to be an unexpected bonus, since we are usually struggling to find the time to get our artwork done, amid the normal demands of everyday life.
“This lockdown work is a departure from my normal practice of photo installation and 3D abstract sculpture. However, I like to surprise myself and avoid repetition, and lockdown has given me the time and freedom to experiment with ideas that satisfy my own curiosity. It’s nice if viewers respond to the work too.
“I thought I would revisit my early skills as a draughtsman, which had largely fallen into disuse, as my work now derives from a direct making approach, ie the ideas evolve as I make a piece of sculpture or photo installation.
“These two drawings I produced in Lockdown One are fairly academic studies, where I engaged with the age-old problems of representational accuracy, not something that usually concerns me. The Apples and Lenses still-life was a real challenge, differentiating the real apples from the lens-distorted images, and, of course, depicting the glass lenses themselves. To make the drawing work, in the process it became more than just observational recording, whereas Old Growler is a straightforward representational rendering of a somewhat surreal situation.
“Before lockdown Jim Crockatt and I had agreed to make square panels to exhibit in the large hall at Newbury’s Ace Space. However, for me the project became an exploration of different possibilities, limited and defined by the four-inch deep, two-foot- square frame they were to be constructed in. As they were made face down, I had no firm idea of how they would actually look until they were finished and I took them out of the frame. I made eight in all, which will hang in pairs.
“Each pair deals with a different aesthetic issue, for example
Calligraphy 1 and 2 were made with cardboard strips that bent naturally into lyrical, flowing shapes because of the nature of the material, as if freehand drawing in space.
“Open Matrix, with each strip pre-painted cyan, magenta and yellow, the complementary colours form an illusion of solidity. Transition proved nearly impossible to make and went through a progressive technical evolution until it actually held together. “Hessian 1 and 2 are pure abstracts, uniting disassociated materials, such as aluminium sheet, sacking, plastic and metal netting, and found objects, to form a working aesthetic.
“Lost and Found has an intentional ambiguity: is it about the specificity of each toy, or is it to be seen as a multicoloured abstraction?
“Unpacking is a comment on everything being delivered in lockdown.
“We are overwhelmed with packaging, and I used this detritus to make a formal construction.”
GAVIN WILKINSON
These two drawings I produced in Lockdown One are fairly academic studies, where I engaged with the age-old problems of representational accuracy, not something that usually concerns me