JACOB GILS
Whether turning his eye to iconic structures and landscape sceneries or to the female body, Jacob Gils creates fragmented, draped and deconstructed visual puzzles, with a strong attention to both aesthetic expression and technical detail.
The project Movement gives visible shape to the relationship between the concrete physical movement, taking place in the production phase and the established environment chosen as content. Through the use of multiple exposures Gils generates engaging interpretations of iconic structures and landscape sceneries.
At first glance these multi-point images appear out of focus or shaken, but in fact they consist of many different very sharp photographs of the same motifs, which are carefully combined to offer an illusion of being on the go – in movement. The technique invites the onlooker to come closer and discover the details, which do not fully reveal themselves from a distance. The hazy, translucent shapes created by the technique make for a photographic style that resembles impressionistic painting while still retaining all the detail of modern photography.
Transfer is a further development of the sophisticated multi-exposures of the Movement series, which is already known for its spacious and picturesque qualities. In this new extension of the series, the works undergo another transformation.
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As polaroids they are further transferred onto watercolour paper. Through this technique a particularly atmospheric and dreamy mood arises, which lends a certain abstract expressionistic layer to the images. Upon closer inspection, however, the eye begins to decode that in these works there are real places depicted, all with their special characteristics. In this way, the viewer is left in a state of both presence and the chance to disappear deep into the works. Transfer opens up the idea of landscape photography as a form of portal to a deeper emotional scenery.
In the series Limit To Your Love, Gils presents images that offer a subtle contrasting vision of the depiction of the iconic and timeless subject matter of the beautiful female. The distinct visual quality and aesthetics of the images result from a unique artistic technique, which involves the transfer of multiple Polaroid images onto watercolour paper. The paper’s textured surface makes it difficult to completely control the process thus adding an element of chance to the final image. The random distortions seen as white areas on the surfaces ensure that the field of one image is never identical to that of its neighbour.
The tactile, disrupted surface of the works creates a distance to the motif, shifting focus from the specific woman depicted to the woman as multifaceted idea, making these works come across as emotive statements with natural imperfections.
Jacob Gils lives and works in Denmark. He graduated from The Copenhagen School of Photography in 1990 and his art has gained recognition in the form of prizes at the PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS (PX3) in 2012 and 2015. He has exhibited in solo and group shows across the globe and his works are represented in the Danish Royal Collection, Nanjing Art Museum, China and at Maersk in Denmark as well as in private collections all over Europe, and in USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Australia.
More info on the artist: www.jacobgils.com
Some articles about Jacob Gils
https://wsimag.com/art/27789-movement
http://www.galeriebettina.com/articles/jacob-gils-le-revenu.pdf
