Kevin Gallagher: Wednesday lecture

Kevin’s work was very distinct, the first body of works inspired me. “sculpture is a tool to orchestrate a space”. That statement personified an ideology I had not considered; I had always thought of the space to create the environment for the sculpture however, Gallagher’s idea of using the Sculpture to construct its environment was fascinating. It made me think of Dan Howard- Birt’s idea of using the architecture of a building to frame the artwork, it’s a compelling composition to think of the artwork to be the environment implementer rather than just an exhibited piece.

I have warmed to contemporary art in this pandemic in-depth as I have seen the creativity it brings out in art. I liked Gallagher’s ‘gels’ sculptures, I had not seen sculptures made from gelatine I didn’t know you could make them from gelatine. I liked his work as it reflects where my weaknesses are, Gallagher has explored these new ways of sculpture-making; whereas I have never delved fully into unusual media, even though I know I could. When watching lecture’s I find it resourceful to take my weakness I find in myself and use it as a positive and use the artists approach to come out of my comfort zone and explore media more.
The humour within Gallagher’s work fuels the purpose of these sculptures. The holistic gel used to mould them is the same gel used to test projectile weapons. It’s intriguing how artwork can allow so much knowledge to obtain throughout. The holistic gel is the closest equivalent to human flesh, the concept of using the human body to create a personified sculpture is fascinating; each sculpture’s placement is placed like a person slouched or leaning. Each gel has transformed into a body of consciousness through Gallagher’s comedic outlook on the holistic gel “edible candy or human flesh…” I can connect with Gallagher in the sense that using humour to fuel an approach to art is something I continuously do throughout my practice.

I have chosen this specific piece of work as I did not connect with his other works, the rest did not hold the same value as what I saw for this exhibition, the gels concept was what caught my attention the most throughout. Another beautiful thing about the gels, the pigmentation on the sculptures was blind cast as he had to wait to see how the pigmentation of the gels had blended once set. I have always had an interest in the idea of making art that creates itself rather than yourself. In comparison to Gallagher’s other works, this piece contrasts between pre-meditated and letting the art capture itself; like a constructed experiment almost, relaying the irony of it all as his artwork became a trial and error testing idea like the testing of weapons.

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