George Taylor: Intimate Immensity

About

Inspired by ritual feather-work pieces from the Andes and Hawaii, Taylor’s painstakingly created works combine primal instinct and natural materials with today’s canon of contemporary art by using complex optical designs and sumptuous, iridescent colour.

During Taylor’s quest to nd a conceptual language that complimented her own experience of the natural world which surrounds her on the secluded Gloucestershire farm she lives and works on, Taylor was inspired by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) whose term ‘Intimate Immensity’ was rst referred to in his book the ‘Poetics of Space’ in 1958.

Relating to Bachelard’s correlation of a moment of inner stillness with ‘eternal disquiet’ and the continual cycle of life and death Taylor’s works are at once mesmerisingly still and full of life and rebirth.

The eeting moment and subtle movement are at the core of much of Taylor’s work and many works in the exhibition show her ongoing investigation into the state of Nirvana reached through the connection of ‘the little death’ of sexual orgasm, or through the act of dying itself. More recently Taylor has also taken inspiration from writers such as the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray (b.1930) whose thoughts about how erotic intimacy and proximity could evoke a sacred stillness are so similar to her own.

Highlights of the exhibition include a new monumental work The Beast in Me, 2017, which at 7ft tall and made from the glistening feathers of the cockerel and crow has a slightly sinister yet sensual quality. A new lm Innocent Potency featuring Taylor will also be screened for the rst time and interweaves imagery of an innocent but sexually charged pillow ght with raw imagery of Cuban cock ghting rituals.

In recent years, Taylor has used an extensive variety of feathers to create absorbing, large-scale pieces which blend qualities of sculpture, installation and painting. Her work is in numerous in uential private collections and prices range from £2,500 to £100,000.

Please note: No animals were harmed to create this work. George Taylor carefully sources her feathers from birds that have died naturally or from Victorian taxidermy collections.