Nicole Gault: The Skinny Showcase

In this month's showcase, the work of Duncan of Jordanstone of College of Design graduate Nicole Gault

Feature | 19 Jul 2017

‘homegrown belter’

"How sexuality, gender and the institution of religion affects and shapes society, with particular emphasis on the LGBT community, has always interested me significantly.

"We live in a world that still makes allowances for prejudice and where personal freedom is still inhibited. Geographical areas of interest include the Bible Belt in America where biblical literalism is rife and this is a strong driving force in the foundations of the work. The idea of the family unit, its traditions and values, have been a fundamental aspect of how my work has developed.

"Taking the identifiable and possibly memorable craft of cross stitching and moving it into a contemporary realm challenging generational differences of liberalism within a family setting. Pop culture in relation to music, television and the internet in particular has influenced this subject matter and the level of personal expression and freedom this enables. This is reflected through sculptural and two dimensional work accompanied by constructional aspects that challenge our perceptions of masculinity and femininity. Subtle hints of religious influence are present through exploring familial settings.

"As an artist, I find myself consumed by societal issues and use my work in order to bring attention to certain things. In recent years, I have been exploring our relationships with gender, sexuality, race and how religion affects these issues. I create organic ceramic forms from clay, which ultimately take on a suggested figurative shape, to challenge and reflect our traditionalist views.

"Degree show was a bit of a mixed bag. It took a while for the people who filtered through to engage with the work. I found it interesting that the majority of people that stopped to look at the cross stitch piece in particular thought that it just said "Home Sweet Home" but quickly backtracked when they realised the true message (Homo Sweet Homo). Even more interesting that these were people of an older generation giving further importance to the message that I was conveying: that liberalism differs generationally."

Originally from Port Glasgow, Nicole Gault studied HND Contemporary Art Practice at City of Glasgow College before moving on to study Fine Art at DJCAD in 2014.

http://theskinny.co.uk/art