{"id":13681,"date":"2022-11-29T13:53:17","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T13:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/?p=13681"},"modified":"2022-11-29T14:31:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T14:31:56","slug":"paint-is-a-language-for-harriet-gillett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/paint-is-a-language-for-harriet-gillett\/","title":{"rendered":"Paint Is A Language For Harriet Gillett"},"content":{"rendered":"
Before your MA in Fine Art, you studied a BA in English Literature, what was this route from English to art like for you?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Even though I went to do English at university, I continued painting after school, doing my local Open Studio in East Yorkshire, selling colourful pictures of cows and painting people\u2019s dogs alongside my degree. I spent a year working in admin after graduating, which brought me to London. Seeing all the amazing art here made me want to scratch that itch and develop a practice that felt more my own rather than commissioned or more commercial work, so in the end I quit the 9 to 5 and did (a lot!) of really random ad-hoc jobs whilst figuring things out. Things slowly started to happen! <\/span>I\u2019m glad I took this more scenic route<\/span> as I have found that everything has informed it in some way. It gave me time to drip feed my progress as a painter. <\/span><\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad I took this more scenic route<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nCourtesy of Harriet Gillett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Do you think you bring any of the skills or knowledge from this perhaps more academic background to your practice as a painter?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
My work is definitely informed by my degree. I suppose I learned how words can exert a certain power over individuals, there is a sense of history being written by the winner, and language serving those who are in power because they are the ones who wrote it. I was really interested in writers who questioned the assumed neutrality of language, and defamiliarise the way we talk about things by showing a different perspective. Particularly books that open up a real questioning of the assumed truth in any narrative, through telling the same series of events from multiple character’s perspectives. These show how there is never just one way of remembering anything, and stories change and shift as they are told.<\/span><\/p>\n
I am hyper-aware of this and consequently <\/span>my own work is very self-consciously fictive and subjective<\/span>, dreamlike almost. I am not trying to impose anything, more so trying to open things up. <\/span>I try to achieve a certain fluidity and ambiguity<\/span> in painting so that my own subjects are never pinned down to a set identity. I also use a lot of different references and ways of painting within one work, as one might use phrases or idioms within a novel, to give this sense of potential to lead elsewhere, a multiplicity of perspectives.<\/span><\/p>\n
My own work is very self-consciously fictive<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Text often appears in your work, either snatches of a phrase, or as poems. It seems that language is an inspiration to you as an artist, so I\u2019m interested in which books you are reading, or rereading, currently?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yes, I tend to use phrases to drive or channel the feeling I want to capture. I get more inspiration at the moment from song lyrics though as they are more intense and succinct, and lend themselves to snippets. At the moment Kate Bush\u2019s album, <\/span>The Sensory World<\/span><\/i>, is guiding my work a lot, particularly her song \u201cDeeper understanding\u201d. She is so ahead of her time when she speaks of the loneliness and anxiety surrounding technology advancements.<\/span><\/p>\nCourtesy of Harriet Gillett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
As for what I am reading at the moment, I have been obsessed with Ali Smith for a while and most recommend <\/span>The Accidental<\/span><\/i>. I am inspired by her tangential approach to writing that exposes the connections between things, as well as her ability to create total absurdity from very everyday, believable scenarios. She really questions the line between reality and imagination.<\/span><\/p>\n
Having studied something else, why was it important for you to formalise your practice through an MA, rather than simply pivoting to being a \u2018self-taught\u2019 artist?<\/b><\/p>\n
While I am very grateful for how my experiences developed and informed my work in a more \u2018self-taught\u2019 way, ultimately I got to a point where I was flitting around quite a lot, and still felt I lacked clear direction. I decided to do an MA because <\/span>I wanted to really take the time to deepen and contextualise my practice<\/span> within the wider world of art. I felt I would benefit from the input of more experienced tutors and mentors. It was a really intense year and the show at the end enabled me to be really ambitious at an early stage of my career. Inevitably it\u2019s given me a bit more of a foot in the door and helped get over some of my mountains of imposter syndrome.<\/span><\/p>\n
Paint has a mystery about it<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nCourtesy of Harriet Gillett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Why do you think you\u2019re drawn to painting, in particular, as a medium?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
Paint has a mystery about it.<\/span> A suggestiveness. It is a never-ending challenge to not over-do it. And paint is a language in itself. It is so ancient, steeped with tradition. Everything you do with it is a reference to some previous history. I think there is a magic in that, it is like a bloodline running deep through time and space, connecting us with some older remnant. And yet a painted image can communicate without being didactic – you still have to interpret it yourself.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
When do you feel most creatively satisfied?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
When I\u2019ve got the painting out of the studio and I see it up on a wall after months of hating it. Or when I have finished something really epic like a mural!<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
I hate to give up<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How do you know it\u2019s time to give up on a piece?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
I hate to give up.<\/span> I can\u2019t bear to throw things away as I always believe there\u2019s hope for something, even if it\u2019s just painting over it. I kind of see painting as a microcosm for life; you just have to keep going with it, and often the bits which you mess up or have to change due to a previous failure turn out to be what makes the piece in the end. Certainly I have older works which I have never finished. But I still see their traces in newer works, which I probably wouldn\u2019t have been able to resolve had I not begun that unfinished piece a year or so before.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nCourtesy of Harriet Gillett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
What\u2019s next for you?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
I have a few exciting shows planned for next year that I am working towards, and have a couple of cool collaborations on the distant horizon. But really the plan is just to keep painting and see what happens! <\/span><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_4019-scaled.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/moreliketherain.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/do-you-remember-spring-1-scaled.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_4116-scaled.jpeg\")