Women-Led Gallery Gillian Jason Unveils "The Earth We Walk Upon, the Ancestors We Bring With Us"
A metaphorical passageway into our primal bond with nature by Julia Bennett and Mizuki Nishiyama.
Gillian Jason Gallery — a space dedicated exclusively to female and non-binary artists — presents The Earth We Walk Upon, The Ancestors We Bring With Us, an exhibition that reminds us of our primal bond with nature through a selection of personal paintings, sculpture and tapestries by London-based artists Julia Bennett and Mizuki Nishiyama.
For both creatives, the notion of the earth is a metaphorical passageway, a point of access to the past and future, a route of connection between the living and ancestors, and an exploration of trauma and remediation. Throughout the showcase, the soil becomes a portal into both the known and unknown. “When we bury our hands in its flesh, we entangle ourselves in its history,” read the exhibition notes.
Bennett uses clay and natural materials, such as fungi and mushrooms, to revive desecrated landscapes. Her artistic discourse is informed by the ghosts of many pasts and those that have yet to come. She also works on long-term projects to remember and restore endemic species in her home place of California, a land colonized and occupied to the point of near infertility.
During the gallery’s opening, Bennett stated, “This earth that we live on is incredibly important to us all, and it has been for years and years and years. I’d say this showcase is the culmination of that idea. At one point in my career, the notion of making art that could not be broken down or returned to its natural form started to weigh heavy on me. I didn’t want to keep creating permanent forever pieces; that is not what I envisioned for my practice. So I started doing a lot of research on mushrooms and natural pigments and how they can create something truly beautiful and untamed. And that, for me, is art.”
Meanwhile, Nishiyama burns and distresses burlap, linen, cotton, synthetic fibers, and indigo-dyed textiles as means of embracing and reconstructing the past, present and future. Her production focuses on bridging the gap between her mixed cultural heritages, which span Hong Kong, Japan and Italy. The artist told Hypebae, “I regard soil as something eternal, umbilical, feminine, historical, nourishing and symbolic of the humbling source of life.”
The Earth We Walk Upon, The Ancestors We Bring With Us will be open to the public from February 23 to March 25 at Gillian Jason Gallery.
Gillian Jason Gallery
19 Great Titchfield St.
London
W1W 8AZ
