Artist Statement:

The paintings in this exhibition continue my exploration of landscape in contemporary life as filtered through digital technology. Technology has changed forever how we experience life, and gives us access to information 24/7 so that ‘down time’, contemplation and quietude are seemingly things of the past. It seems our entire view of life is filtered in some way through technology.

My previous landscapes have used my own photos taken from the car whilst in transit. In these, there was a disconnection from the landscape which was rushed past rather than experienced in any meaningful way. I wanted to take this disconnection one step further.

For these works I enlisted the collaboration of friends to source the images for the paintings. It was a challenging exercise to obtain enough interesting and varied material that would translate well into paintings and hang together as a cohesive body of work.

Recent cases about appropriation and artists using other people’s images also interested me and have fed into my thinking about this body of work. In my case I sought contributions and permission to use and have named the final paintings after the photographer and location ensuring appropriate acknowledgement.

Amanda van Gils, October 2012.

Image: © Amanda van Gils, Catherine Asquith Gallery