Claire Gilliam – Life Lines
I began the series Life Lines two or three years ago, after coming into the possession of recent MRI scans of my brain.
I began the series Life Lines two or three years ago, after coming into the possession of recent MRI scans of my brain. The scans, which I spent hours pouring over, both fascinated and horrified me. Even though I’d always known the seriousness of it, I was suddenly confronted with visual evidence of the long ago but significant brain injury I’d sustained as a baby. A large dark mass on the left hemisphere still declaring loudly, after 40 years, my narrow escape. Around the same time, I also experienced a difficult and continuous period of profound familial loss.
Both these episodes left me thinking about the body in a very different way than I had before: I became interested in the biology and physiology of our bodies and the seemingly cruel, capricious way a body can behave, vacillating between strength and fragility. I began to make drawings from the MRIs, at first visually recording the brain itself, to understand how its structure and pathways form to activate the circumstances of the individual being we become. As the series has developed, the imagery has dissolved into abstraction, capturing something more existential.
Please join me for the opening reception on Saturday, November 2 from 5.00-7.00pm (the Amity Gallery will be open to visitors from 1 pm)
The Gallery is open every weekend from 1.00-4.00 pm.
https://www.clairegilliam.com/
