PERSONAL STUFFING
Installation of painted banners, fabric structures and interactive projection.2019
This work is part of the ongoing Vide Magmas project, an imaginary girl gang of six characters, each a refracted piece of the artists identity.
‘Personal Stuffing’ consists of three fabric, constructed and painted banners depicting three of the characters from the girl gang. Each is surrounded by an assortment of objects and symbols associated with their character. Some of the items are real possessions of the artist, and some are invented. In one banner the rollerskating character clasps a broken wrist encassed in a cast, alluding to the real world event of a broken wrist the artist experienced in the middle of working on this project. This leaking between real and imagined blurs the line between the two, overlayed in gauzy layers, much like the semi-transparent material the characters are painted on overlays the physical backdrop of the gallery wall, leaving navigable space between.
Riffing on the pop-culture ideal of the social media age; the obligatory girl-gang, Vide Magmas is in contrast a ‘girl-gang’ of one, where Gemma, tounge-in-cheek, keeps her own company. Vide Magmas was created with an interest in the consequences of a growing merge between the digital realm and the physical. This project possesses a curiosity about the effect of this on the mechanics of identity. The compositions of ‘Personal Stuffing’ allude to the popular flatlay trend, contemplating the way in which identity in a capitalist society is firmly based in a relationship with objects, in a time where anyone can ‘curate’ their own persona.
