With a love for etching, stone lithography, and the connection that they have with our relationship with the environment; Jemma Gunning’s print work captures our fading industrial heritage. Like our presence, the use of acids in Jemma’s printmaking practice physically manipulates the surface of metals and stones, resonating our impacts as humans.
Jemma’s practice is based around the exploration and recording of abandoned buildings. “Just one or two historic buildings can define a place and community. With urban expansions and redevelopments rapidly happening worldwide, I feel that it is increasingly important to document derelict forms that are in danger of being lost” states the artist. Her passion for printmaking blossomed whilst she was studying her BA in Drawing where she was introduced to the print room. Drawn in by the smell of the inks, the mechanical presses and the methodological processes, after her BA Jemma went on to study a masters in printmaking at UWE. This developed her interest in industrial decline, and she began to use etching and lithography to record our forever changing landscape.
Alongside her practice, Jemma is currently carrying out a research fellowship at the City and Guilds art school in London, working alongside master printmaker Jason Hicklin. In 2018 she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship to support the two-year fellowship opportunity. Jemma also works as a technical instructor at the University of the West of England in the lithography studio. This year, Jemma was awarded an Elizabeth Greenshield Award which has assisted the set up of her own print studio in Bristol. Fulfilling her dream, she now has an independent space at Estate of the Arts, an industrial warehouse home to a range of creative folk.
Currently, Jemma is working on a commission for the Townscape Heritage Project in Birmingham. The work created will be for a joint exhibition with artist Tracey Thorne, titled The Fading City. The project is inspired by the textures and typography of buildings that surround us, and calls on us to immerse ourselves in a world that might otherwise slip by. Both artists have produced new works for the exhibition using different printmaking techniques to draw out the character and souls of the buildings.
For her commission, Jemma is responding to two abandoned sites; Alabaster and Wilson and Unity works. Using monotypes and etchings, she will be exploring the building’s derelict states, freezing moments in time and recording our fading heritage. Tracey Thorne is based in Birmingham and uses photography to explore the ephemeral painted walls found on the streets. The new work created for the exhibition is based on her work to document old hand-painted signs found in Birmingham known as ‘ghost signs’.
The exhibition opens on the 2nd March 2020 at The Hive Gallery, The New Standard Works, in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham.
www.jemmagunning.com
@jemma_gunning_printmaker
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