The work offers nuanced observations of our immediate environment and examines how we communicate and respond within those spaces we inhabit. These concerns are often social, political, and ecological, all observed from a female perspective.
There is no imitation or direct reference. The response is more subtle, personal, intimate, evoking a sensuality and eroticism and one which is often ritualistic.
Jill Gibson's practice is multi-disciplinary, working across platforms including sculpture, video, installation, painting and drawing and is an on-going exploration of material and form and one which critically examines historical female narratives and female iconography, fragility, and transience. These concerns are social and political. Jill has worked for several years expanding the techniques and methods employed to incorporate a wide range of materials and construction methods into her practice. More recently she has been incorporating naturally occurring material, wax, dye, minerals, shell, coal, sand, clay and paper into the work, moving towards a more sustainable way of production.
Originally from Sheffield, an industrial town in the North of England, Jill studied her BA (Hons.) degree course at Glasgow School of Art, Scotland and an MFA in Sunderland, England with Distinctions in both. She was invited to become a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2018 and was awarded the Henry Moore Foundation Research Grant to facilitate her visit to CAST and has previously exhibited work at the London Frieze, the Venice Biennale and has participated in the Future Feminist Archive Project, Sydney, Australia. More recently (Summer 2023), she was invited to participate in VignArt, an outdoor sculptural exhibition in the Champagne region of France. The expansive work - a collaborative piece- was sited in Epernay in the grounds of Domain Gossett and was inspired by Babette Clicquot, who revolutionised the champagne industry in France with her invention of Le Reumage.
Other notable projects include the following: An interactive large scale sculptural works was produced based on the lives of female factory workers in the 1970's in Lapua, Finland who lost their lives in the largest industrial accident in Finland's history entitled the Bells of Lapua 2024. In November 2022, Jill was invited to participate in a research project, conducted at the University of Manitoba – UoM, in the Department of Architecture, facilitated by a research grant from the Henry Moore Foundation (UK), C.A.S.T and the Sustainability in Action Faculty, SiAF, UoM. Additionally, in 2018 Jill was invited to create and install several commissioned works shown at Cheeseburn Sculpture Park, Stamfordham, Northumberland. She was invited again in 2019 and has participated in several larger exhibitions including the Contextile Biennale, 2022, Guimaraes, Portugal, Cotswolds Sculpture Park, Cotswolds, UK - 2019, Sculpture in The Vineyard - Wollombi Village, Lower Hunter Valley NSW, Australia in 2016 and 'Taking Up Space' - Future Feminist Archive - New South Wales, Australia in 2015. Jill currently works from her studios in Cullercoats, UK and Lauzerte, France. For more information regarding any of the projects or works for sale, please use the contact links below.