London artist Adam Gillam Gillam creates objects and installations (constructed mainly from found materials) that navigate a course between painting, sculpture, and installation while also uses elements of animation and photography.
Gillam received his Post Graduate degree at the Royal Academy (1997) and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at De Montfort University in Leicester. His work has been reviewed in publications such as The Guardian, Time Out, Evening Standard and a catalogue for "Art is a Cupboard" with text by Mark Beasley was published this year. He recently held his first solo exhibition at Art is a Cupboard at Keith Talen Gallery (London) and is preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition in Milan this October.
Caryn Coleman: Your work uniquely involves the act of finding materials, de-constructing them, and then re-constructing them into a new object. What's your interest in doing this? Do you see the act like a rescue in which you're taking discarded items and breathing new life into them?
Adam Gillam: I don't think the materials issue is as formal or weighty as your question implies. Most of my decisions are very straightforward and pragmatic ones to do with availability and economics. Finding, or being given materials takes some of the decision making away. Perhaps I find this liberating. This reminds me of the initial frustrations I had when trying to make paintings; I would spend ages stretching and priming a canvas, only to wonder why I had decided on its size and what would I paint on the thing. Using materials that are found or scavenged allows me to actually make decisions and change them rapidly as one can when working with collage.
CC: Your art contains elements of painting, sculpture, photography, and installation - how do you go about finding your materials and sources?
AG: I am attracted to utilitarian materials such as MDF, wood and cardboard, that are associated with the construction industry and DIY/home improvement projects and there is a lot of this discarded on the pavements in London. Sometimes I am given materials by a furniture maker, I am a sucker for some free wood! I like being able to construct works from a very basic financial position and scavenge and collect things that might come in handy, things left behind by other artists in the studio.
Photography and the use of found images has become a significant dimension to what I do. The camera is a portable form of a practice; I can wander about taking photos, collating and collecting images that might feed into pieces in the studio. Some of the objects are means to display these images, to bring something more observed to the work although there is no consistent rationale as to why certain images are chosen over others.
My sources are always mutating and are not always in the world of fine art. I have a 1970's Reader's Digest manual of DIY, a 1940's book of shop displays. I have recently returned from Berlin and have a show by Dash Snow and Birgit Brenner in my head. There was a show by Tobias Buche that I couldnt get to but has been rumbling around too.
A lot of what happens in the studio is about how things feed off and into each other.
CC: How does scale factor into your work? Do you plan on producing larger scale works in the future?
AG: The physical act of making is vital for my practice. It's important that I am self sufficient in terms of what I am physically able to construct and this will inevitably affect the potential for scale. If the raw materials become too cumbersome and heavy this kills the spontaneity and rapid decision-making.
I don't plan to make any significant bigger works. I don't really plan ahead with what I am going to make, objects will be the size they end up as.
CC: Tell me a bit about your recent show, Art is a Cupboard, that was at Keith Talent Gallery in London (March 24-April 29, 2007); specifically its relation to the Russian poet Daniil Kharms.
Art is a Cupboard was my first solo show. It was important for me to test the work both with an audience and in a space outside of my rammed studio space.
I had been working towards the show for about three months and included five sculptures, a video piece and a print.
Running up to the show I had been reading various texts that explore notions of daftness, stupidity, trickery and mischief making. Kierkegaard's claim that "Life can only be grasped by looking backwards, but must be lived forwards" could apply equally to art making. While it is impossible to set out to be stupid, the accidental results of apparent failure or bungling often play a crucial role in taking artists beyond their intentions and expectations. Art, like life, often proceeds in ignorance and darkness.
Daniil Kharms "Incidences" contains a selection of short stories, some very short. His work has been described as a form of literary hooliganism and I found them hugely entertaining and baffling in equal measures. The narratives are near formless, violent, sad, and hilarious all at once.
CC: Your work seems to fit within the ideas of Russian Futurism where they believed that there is intrinsic meaning to be found in objects and worlds outside of their function. How are you incorporating these ideas into something that fits within the realm of contemporary art?
AG: Futurism celebrated technology, speed and mechanical energy. My practice (mostly) employs low-tech materials and methods of construction and would appear at odds to notions of embracing technological advancement. I don't try and mould the work to fit what's going on in terms of other contemporary artists. Although of course I am aware of others employing a similar aesthetic and use of materials; Rachel Harrison, Gedi Sibony, Tobias Buche, Michaela Meise, Manfred Pernice. I think it's important to just do your own thing.
CC: For your upcoming publication "Art is a Cupboard" (2007) writer Mark Beasley mentions that you're influenced by Church of Saint Mary of Victory in Rome. How is this place influential in your work?
AG: To say I am influenced by Saint Mary the Victory is too strong and perhaps taken out of context. In preparing the publication for "Art is a Cupboard" Mark had asked what my influences were. I think this is always a difficult question to answer. At the time I had been thinking about a recent visit to Rome where I had visited this church and was recounting the experience. The church front is classic Baroque; measured, proportioned and calm, but on entering and once your eyes have adjusted, the viewer is confronted with a visual cacophony, every surface has been adorned, decorated, painted, marbled - there is almost too much to take in. I found this exciting and it reminded me of some earlier works I made for The Way We Work Now at Camden Arts Centre in July 2005. I had made a series of rough plinths that were decorated with loads of images, bits, paint etc and there was too much to take in, no particular focus. The recent works are much more restrained, economical.
CC: What are you working on now? What's coming up for you?
AG: I am working towards a solo show at Gallery Klerkx in Milan. This will take place possibly in late October or November 2007.
The gallery is an amazing space, run by Manuela Klerkx whom I met in March when I flew out to see the space. It will be my first international solo show.
For more information on Adam Gillam please visit Keith Talent Gallery.
Gillam received his Post Graduate degree at the Royal Academy (1997) and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at De Montfort University in Leicester. His work has been reviewed in publications such as The Guardian, Time Out, Evening Standard and a catalogue for "Art is a Cupboard" with text by Mark Beasley was published this year. He recently held his first solo exhibition at Art is a Cupboard at Keith Talen Gallery (London) and is preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition in Milan this October.
Caryn Coleman: Your work uniquely involves the act of finding materials, de-constructing them, and then re-constructing them into a new object. What's your interest in doing this? Do you see the act like a rescue in which you're taking discarded items and breathing new life into them?
Adam Gillam: I don't think the materials issue is as formal or weighty as your question implies. Most of my decisions are very straightforward and pragmatic ones to do with availability and economics. Finding, or being given materials takes some of the decision making away. Perhaps I find this liberating. This reminds me of the initial frustrations I had when trying to make paintings; I would spend ages stretching and priming a canvas, only to wonder why I had decided on its size and what would I paint on the thing. Using materials that are found or scavenged allows me to actually make decisions and change them rapidly as one can when working with collage.
CC: Your art contains elements of painting, sculpture, photography, and installation - how do you go about finding your materials and sources?
AG: I am attracted to utilitarian materials such as MDF, wood and cardboard, that are associated with the construction industry and DIY/home improvement projects and there is a lot of this discarded on the pavements in London. Sometimes I am given materials by a furniture maker, I am a sucker for some free wood! I like being able to construct works from a very basic financial position and scavenge and collect things that might come in handy, things left behind by other artists in the studio.
Photography and the use of found images has become a significant dimension to what I do. The camera is a portable form of a practice; I can wander about taking photos, collating and collecting images that might feed into pieces in the studio. Some of the objects are means to display these images, to bring something more observed to the work although there is no consistent rationale as to why certain images are chosen over others.
My sources are always mutating and are not always in the world of fine art. I have a 1970's Reader's Digest manual of DIY, a 1940's book of shop displays. I have recently returned from Berlin and have a show by Dash Snow and Birgit Brenner in my head. There was a show by Tobias Buche that I couldnt get to but has been rumbling around too.
A lot of what happens in the studio is about how things feed off and into each other.
CC: How does scale factor into your work? Do you plan on producing larger scale works in the future?
AG: The physical act of making is vital for my practice. It's important that I am self sufficient in terms of what I am physically able to construct and this will inevitably affect the potential for scale. If the raw materials become too cumbersome and heavy this kills the spontaneity and rapid decision-making.
I don't plan to make any significant bigger works. I don't really plan ahead with what I am going to make, objects will be the size they end up as.
CC: Tell me a bit about your recent show, Art is a Cupboard, that was at Keith Talent Gallery in London (March 24-April 29, 2007); specifically its relation to the Russian poet Daniil Kharms.
Art is a Cupboard was my first solo show. It was important for me to test the work both with an audience and in a space outside of my rammed studio space.
I had been working towards the show for about three months and included five sculptures, a video piece and a print.
Running up to the show I had been reading various texts that explore notions of daftness, stupidity, trickery and mischief making. Kierkegaard's claim that "Life can only be grasped by looking backwards, but must be lived forwards" could apply equally to art making. While it is impossible to set out to be stupid, the accidental results of apparent failure or bungling often play a crucial role in taking artists beyond their intentions and expectations. Art, like life, often proceeds in ignorance and darkness.
Daniil Kharms "Incidences" contains a selection of short stories, some very short. His work has been described as a form of literary hooliganism and I found them hugely entertaining and baffling in equal measures. The narratives are near formless, violent, sad, and hilarious all at once.
CC: Your work seems to fit within the ideas of Russian Futurism where they believed that there is intrinsic meaning to be found in objects and worlds outside of their function. How are you incorporating these ideas into something that fits within the realm of contemporary art?
AG: Futurism celebrated technology, speed and mechanical energy. My practice (mostly) employs low-tech materials and methods of construction and would appear at odds to notions of embracing technological advancement. I don't try and mould the work to fit what's going on in terms of other contemporary artists. Although of course I am aware of others employing a similar aesthetic and use of materials; Rachel Harrison, Gedi Sibony, Tobias Buche, Michaela Meise, Manfred Pernice. I think it's important to just do your own thing.
CC: For your upcoming publication "Art is a Cupboard" (2007) writer Mark Beasley mentions that you're influenced by Church of Saint Mary of Victory in Rome. How is this place influential in your work?
AG: To say I am influenced by Saint Mary the Victory is too strong and perhaps taken out of context. In preparing the publication for "Art is a Cupboard" Mark had asked what my influences were. I think this is always a difficult question to answer. At the time I had been thinking about a recent visit to Rome where I had visited this church and was recounting the experience. The church front is classic Baroque; measured, proportioned and calm, but on entering and once your eyes have adjusted, the viewer is confronted with a visual cacophony, every surface has been adorned, decorated, painted, marbled - there is almost too much to take in. I found this exciting and it reminded me of some earlier works I made for The Way We Work Now at Camden Arts Centre in July 2005. I had made a series of rough plinths that were decorated with loads of images, bits, paint etc and there was too much to take in, no particular focus. The recent works are much more restrained, economical.
CC: What are you working on now? What's coming up for you?
AG: I am working towards a solo show at Gallery Klerkx in Milan. This will take place possibly in late October or November 2007.
The gallery is an amazing space, run by Manuela Klerkx whom I met in March when I flew out to see the space. It will be my first international solo show.
For more information on Adam Gillam please visit Keith Talent Gallery.
zoetica:
London artist Adam Gillam Gillam creates objects and installations (constructed mainly from found materials) that navigate a course between painting, sculpture, and installation while also uses elements of animation and photography....