Gillian Iles
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Bodies of work

IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN   IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN


The other.
The divide.


Building walls, actual, or cerebral to contain, preserve and protect. Whether they are deliberate or an unintentional outcome they require a whole to be split, a division to be determined. Disassociation is created.

To keep something out you keep something in. Trapped.





Towards Eternal Glory   Towards Eternal Glory


Towards eternal glory (Teg) was the official name given to a guided missile frigate in service to the Indian Navy in 2012.

This exhibition is a response to the idea of power - its indefatigable presence, but as a construct, the vulnerability of it as well.




You may be a winner   You may be a winner


You may be a winner is the third installment in series that included You can only get there from here and We found ourselves in a dark forest. The narrative based series follows a group of young protagonists confrontation with an awareness of their own potential and how it is shaped by social ideals, social orders and idealized lifestyles.





You can only get there from here   We found ourselves within a dark forest


The current iteration of the ongoing series You can only get there from here portrays the primal inclination for generational shifts and challenges to accepted ideals, as well as the establishment's prerogative to remain intact and in place.





You can only get there from here   You can only get there from here


These paintings are an examination of ambiguous codes of conduct and burgeoning potentials, as well as the inevitability of social change.





Do things here   That's not how we do things here


These paintings are an examination of ambiguous codes of conduct and burgeoning potentials, as well as the inevitability of social change.





Do things here   That's not how we do things here


That's not how we do things here is an installation of paintings providing the viewer with a panoramic view of playground politics.





Part Of   Part Of

Part of focuses on the group dynamic by using redirected focal points.
Through extreme cropping, the individuals are made anonymous and it is the spaces between them, which are the focal points.





Potential disasters, minor upsets and small victories.   Potential disasters, minor upsets and small victories.

Potential disasters, minor upesets and small victories imposes significance through devout attention to a series of innocuous subjects. The viewer finds themself seeing the beginning or end stage of an equally potential cataclysmic or minor Event. The nature of the conclusions drawn and each Event's relative significance is influenced by how the subject is presented to the viewer.




Want to Be   Want to Be

Want to Be considers individuals' choices and methods for publicly presenting and representing themselves. The paintings are interpretations (cropped, rearranged) of group photographs found on the internet. An individual has been removed from each picture and replaced by my own image personifying socially expected and /or privately desired generalizations of identity (E.g. desirable, successful).



Party Face   Party Face

Party Face considers individuals' choices and methods for publicly presenting and representing themselves. The paintings are interpretations (cropped, rearranged) of group photographs found on the internet. An individual has been removed from each picture and replaced by my own image personifying socially expected and /or privately desired generalizations of identity (E.g. desirable, successful).