For Gillian Cronin, taking a trip to the Tate Modern, London in 2022, inspired a set of new paintings about the spaces we call home.
“I saw a fantastic show by Lubaina Himid while in London,” she says. “Her show explored architecture and space on a grand scale. It made me think about the way we inhabit spaces as human beings.”
“Her show explored architecture and space on a grand scale. It made me think about the way we inhabit spaces as human beings.”
Cronin’s exhibition Rooms+ started out as explorations of dream spaces and the way personal areas can enhance or limit our lives. They headed in a more personal direction when Gillian’s elderly mother transitioned from a villa into a rest home apartment, and then into hospital level care.
“Looking at the rooms we occupy has been heavily involved for this body of work.” says Gillian. “During Covid, where we all spent a lot of time at home staring at the same four walls, to when my mother and husband moved into hospital, there has been a lot of decluttering and sorting happening. These paintings are deeply personal.”
Earlier this year, Gillian’s husband transitioned into care with his battle with Alzheimer’s. She admits that putting together Rooms+ has been a cathartic experience, helping her to process his final months with sadness but using it as a catalyst for hope and creativity. She admits one of her favourite paintings from the collection is Nowhere Man in Nowhere Land, showing her visiting her husband at hospital.
“Rooms+ feels like a long goodbye to my husband, and Nowhere Man has a lovely, peaceful quality to it,” she says. “Artists have this incredible ability to turn emotions and feelings into something creative. Our lives are the inspiration, something of yourself will forever be in the work.”
Gillian Cronin’s exhibition Rooms+ opens on Saturday, 21 November in the Forsyth Barr Windows Gallery with an artist talk and closes on Sunday, 7 March.
