Originally from Scotland, Angela Gilmour previously worked as an engineer in the field of nanotechnology and crystallography, following an honors degree in physics and a master’s degree in science from West Scotland University. After a career spanning seventeen years, and now living in Ireland, she made a drastic change in her life, and decided to return to school to develop a professional art practice. Her current practice is very influenced by her scientific training, each work is for her the opportunity to explore the link between arts and sciences, two fields for observing and analyzing the intelligible world.
Gilmour graduated with an honors degree from Cork’s Crawford College of Art and Design in 2015 and she now collaborates with numerous scientific institutions. Her residencies include Tyndall and the Irish Photonic Integration Center (IPIC) in 2016 to raise awareness of science through art exhibitions, open houses and conferences. The process of collaboration with researchers and scientists has since been an integral part of her artistic approach.
Angela approaches each new project as a true scientist. The creation of the work precedes a long period of observation and analysis of the subject, sketches, research and discussions. For the artist, it is the observation of the detail or the macroscopic, in art as in science, which opens the doors of knowledge to us and enables us to connect with the subject on an intimate level. Through her works, it is the perception of our environment, the most banal and familiar, which she tries to shake up.
Her work is inspired by nature, but also by antiques and old objects. Her studio, a real cabinet of curiosity, is filled with film cameras, typewriters, sea charts, helmets, scientific measuring devices and other strange and incongruous objects gleaned from antique dealers. These objects resonate with the echo of a fantasy past, where the world was not yet dominated by our advanced technologies.
Currently in preparation for a three-week residency, awarded by The Farm Inc of New York, which will take place in the Arctic Circle in the summer of 2019, she is now studying the geology of landscapes which are threatened and almost certain to disappear. Thus, if today it is the Irish coast she surveys, on the lookout for the smallest detail, soon it will be the glaciers of the North Pole she will observe with a magnifying glass, collecting information and samples. Although up until now she has used mainly mixed techniques to give life to her works, for this new project, she wants to return to more academic techniques of drawings, paintings and engravings.
Thus, like science, Angela Gilmour’s work is constantly changing, ready to mutate and evolve with each new discovery and experimentation.
Rachel Chenu – 2019 (Article in French on Pausart.fr)