Harriet Gillett
59 x 51 1/8 x 1 3/8 in.
Further images
Two figures rest languidly on a traditional sofa facing front. A pedestal side table further adds to this drawing room flavour accentuated as it is by the bird atop, recalling domed Victoriana taxidermy. Surrounding the sofa in a carnival of colour, other blue and purple birds swoop and perch, giving rise to the question whether these birds are real or merely points of transition where dreamlike states become examined realities.
Gillett works from quickly sketched impressions (often made from life) with a slower, intuitive approach to colour and light that blurs the experienced with the imagined. She looks to offer a transitional space that is both within and beyond the viewer’s experiences by adopting a surrealistic logic to transform familiar scenes which creates a psychological exploration of time and place.
Whilst holding some of its origins in well-known literary or art historical traditions that nod to various time periods, she uses a “rose-tinted” colour palette with fluorescent spray paint at its base, that positions itself between past and present, traditional and contemporary. Paint thus operates as a metaphor for both instability and potential transformation, allowing for fluidity of form.