“Immaterial” - Artist Interview with Bryson Gill
Bryson Gill, Untitled (2012). Oil on linen, 37 1/2 x 38 1/2 inches.
What was your inspiration for this work, in regards to including a textile/basing it on a textile or fabric, or otherwise interpreting the form?
The works for this show are all based on taking some experimental techniques that are an aspect of my current work and highlighting them per the theme of the show. They aren’t meant to represent textiles, or really represent anything actually. They were an experiment in creating a painting that was as tactile as a textile and that would call attention to the physical object itself, much like a textile, and less to the illusory or pictorial way that I might normally approach the action of painting..
What were some of your processes for creating this work?
Some of these works are bleached linen. Linen can be fairly dark on the grey scale to begin with so the bleach would allow me to start with a reductive process rather than the standard additive process that is indicative to the action of painting. Then I would cut and sew the linen together and finally add just a little bit of paint to bring all the parts together. How would I call it a painting otherwise?
The other works are just painted very thinly in hopes to retain the quality of the linen as much as possible.
Bryson Gill, Untitled (2012). Oil, bleach on sewn linen, 35 x 50 inches.
What are your thoughts on the relationship between textile art (weavings, quilts, embroidery, etc.) and textiles represented in art (through photography, painting, etc.)? Do you consider painting to be a form of textile art?
I don’t consider painting to be a form of textile art at all, except when it is. The two are coming from two diabolically opposite cannons of thought. Textiles are a craft, tradition, decorative and can tell a story (or have historically). Painting can obviously touch on all those things but the experience, history, expectation, and conceptualizing of a painting is under a different paradigm. You approach the two with different eyes. But they are both interesting and it’s fun to see them crossover where they do.
Bryson Gill, Untitled (2012). Oil, bleach on sewn linen, 50 x 35 inches.
Immaterial is on view at Wolfe Contemporary through July 26th.
