FEATURE
Artist talk: Sarah Gillett
In this podcast episode released by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Sarah Gillett talks about her research on how astronauts dream, the promise of future seances, and the joy of collaboration.
Fermynwoods Podcast 1 was released on 1 May 2020 and is a 52 minute conversation between Sarah and former Fermynwoods Assistant Director Jessica Harby, who curated, produced, and hosted the podcast from 2019 – 2021.
In 2019 Sarah was commissioned by Fermynwoods to produce work over two years and multiple sites as part of its programme In Steps of Sundew. In this talk, she discusses the inspiration provided by the grounds, archives and staff at Rockingham Castle, the challenges of working through a pandemic and her shifting perceptions of the world from behind glass.
This episode features clips from her audio work Well Well (2014) as well as a full-length playthrough of her earliest audio work, Black Night, made in 1996.
Fermynwoods Contemporary Art is an educational charity and arts organisation that supports life through art. It commissions innovative and meaningful ways for visual artists to engage with audiences, in public spaces across Northamptonshire and online.
Sarah Gillett is an artist and writer investigating the life of things across space and time.
More Features
All featuresArtist talk: Eleanor Watson
Eleanor grapples with her attraction to decorative interiors, finding beauty in pattern, object and light, in this video presentation.
Collecting the Looking
“I love drawing really quickly. I love drawing in really difficult situations. I love drawing in the dark. I like what happens when you can’t see everything or when it’s passed and you have to remember it rather than drawing what it actually looks like, so it’s about the experience of looking as much as what I’m looking at.”
We talk to Michelle Avison about building a resilient artistic practice over 30 years.
Etching
Etching was originally invented as a method for adding decoration to armour during the Middle Ages. Artists began to use metal plates for printing in the 15th century, when Albrecht Durer made work on iron plates. Later artists such as Andrea Mantegna in Italy and Rembrandt in Holland went on to make etchings on copper.