Pockets of Experience with Ciara Gibson

About

Time spent in nature, wandering, playing, thinking, talking, observing, stays with us. These experiences are popped into our pockets to sustain and nurture us as we go about our daily lives.

Join us in the Gallery to see the work that unfolded throughout Ciara's studio-access residency, as well as Meet the Artist sessions, an artist talk and celebratory gathering to discuss and discover the processes behind the installation.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

The core theme to my work is my relationship with the landscape. This is often overly curated and censored to create pieces that are depersonalised, refined and marketable. The studio residency at Birnam offered an opportunity to delve into my emotional connection with the environment, to explore how this relationship has developed over time and in turn shaped my creative process and role as an educator.

Pockets of Experience is a chance to look beneath the finished elements that normally hold space in a gallery. A glimpse inside the studio process, how ideas tumble around, meander, double back and leap forward. These ideas are not just about producing finished work but an essential process to make sense of the world.

The places I experience stay with me. Some so familiar that I can trace each twist and turn and alternate pathway. Others are fleeting memories that I can’t quite touch. I gather these experiences, bringing them with me in my pocket like the pieces from the forest floor.

The work is all ‘in progress’. Creating Monoprints of my favourite forest finds has encouraged me to slow down and observe the texture and details that make each of these natural objects so remarkable. These have also inspired ceramic works that explore the importance of these tactile pieces that I often keep with me in my pocket. Prints of familiar places have been shaped and stitched into pockets, giving each its own space but gathered together to explore the totality of my engagement with the landscape and how it has shaped me.