Lily Gilston

I create tactile experiences in sculpture in installation, utilizing multimedia fiber techniques. Using the natural tendencies of the materials to inform the work, I build through papermaking, needle-felting, and weaving. Handmade paper is innately about the process. Using simple book structures, I am able to transform the paper into multi-dimensional objects in Formings. Needle-felted wool adds texture to the flat planes of handmade paper. Intuitive, organic forms emanate in and around the pages, a seamless coexistence of hard and soft materiality.

I juxtapose fibers with rigid structures to evoke a sense of familiarity and comfort, uncertainty and unease. Black branches become lines in space as I weave transparent textiles to add an anthropomorphic form. In Untitled (here nor there), I recontextualize and redefine the branches into shadowy entities, as I create from what already exists and what is often overlooked. I question how we, as a collective, arrived at the mindset that people are far removed from nature. My intention is to create a quiet yet confrontational realm to examine this discordant relationship, using the white cube to relate the creation of man-made boundaries that exploit natural resources. I continue to reflect upon the notion that nature doesn’t have a voice, but if she did, what would she tell us? What would she warn us about? My interdisciplinary practice explores various processes to investigate how people interact with and imbue meaning in their environment.