Gill Gatfield
Toughened glass
Half Glass appeals to our human desire to question,
frame, organise, solve and resolve. It toys with the inherent
contradiction of a glass that is half-empty but is also a glass
half-full. Defying all technical limits for cutting and toughening
glass, the work rises from the ground, poised, elegant, apparently
fragile and thin-yet also robust and firmly anchored.
Half Glass is both transparent and reflective. A
chameleon, it swings between mirror and lens, frame and content,
representation and abstraction. Unlike true mirror which encloses,
inverts and flattens a three-dimensional image, Half Glass
creates multi-dimensional images in an ever-changing blend of
background, foreground, distance, light, and movement.
The central rectangular void is equivalent to half the volume of
the work. A vertical form in human scale, it suggests a frame to
contain the body at the same time as it locates the landscape as
central and contextual. The human form is reflected in the margins,
imprinted on the environment; a portrait within a landscape.
From her studio in Whangaparaoa, conceptual artist Gill Gatfield
(LLB, MFA (Hons)) produces abstract paintings and sculptures that
reveal intriguing layers of image and meaning. Using rule-bending,
innovative processes, she makes unique permanent works in cut
glass, live grass, disposable nappies, magnetic fields, and
electric currents. The works expose subtle shifts inherent in
everyday materials, appealing to the senses and tempting further
investigation.
Gatfield is concerned with the complexity of minimal forms, the
poetry within the commonplace, and the beauty in the mundane. Her
critically-recognized work features in national awards, public
gallery and solo exhibitions, and in art collections in New Zealand
and overseas.