'TEMPORARY SITTERS' BY 24-YEAR-OLD EMILY GILLBANKS ARRIVES AT JD MALAT
Temporary Sitters, 16 March – 8 April 2023
Gillbanks produces the kaleidoscopic diary of the to-be-continued London underground stories
JD Malat Gallery is showcasing Temporary Sitters, a debut solo exhibition by a 24-year-old British artist Emily Gillbanks. On view until 8th April 2023, the show features a series of paintings depicting people travelling throughout the London Underground. Fascinated by the complex underground network, Gillbanks creates an installation that invites viewers to immerse themselves in the dynamic world of the tube, encountering fellow passengers and pondering each of their stories.
Recently graduated from Royal College of Art, Gillbanks has transformed the lower ground floor gallery space with her spectacular representations of everyday life, putting the spotlight on the stories of people she comes across in her daily routine. In this fascinating show, Gillbanks plays with different levels of representation and explores the concepts of alienation, anonymity and modern-day voyeurism. The diversity of passengers she encounters inspires her to re-imagine the tube settings into a unique public space that is in a constant state of transition, where each person riding the underground has no choice but to become a temporary sitter.
Given the recent unrest among the workforce in the United Kingdom, it comes as a surprise that public transport serves as the source of inspiration for Gillbanks. Strikes, increase of prices, cancellations of various services - Gillbanks encourages the audience to contemplate and celebrate this perplexing, yet somewhat enchanting environment by focusing on what the hybridity of London metropolis has to offer people.
Discovering her subjects on various journeys across the train network in the characteristically modern S7 and S8 trains, Gillbanks features the typical attribute of these trains - the seats with multicoloured squares, which mark and signify a time in which the artist observed modern life. In a bustling crowd, Gillbanks finds a plethora of personalities for her artworks. The tube becomes a ubiquitous arena where individuals with various life paths intersect and a 10-minute journey suddenly unifies and equalises everybody. They are all connected, as most of them are captivated by technology.
Responding to technological phenomena, Gillbanks’ work aims to reflect on how smartphones have become an extension of both the mind and the body. She asks the audience if they recall any of the faces they came across on the tube. Absorbed into the virtual world of digital devices, people often forget about reality and life happening around them. Gillbanks also raises a topic of ‘modern-day voyeurism’, which encompassess CCTV monitoring and watching each other through the world of social media and easily accessible digital surveillance.
Jean-David Malat, the founder of the gallery, remarks, “Looking at Emily’s unique ability to transform the mundanity of everyday experiences in the underground into a refreshing platform which raises deeper sociological and anthropological questions, I am beyond thrilled to present her first show Temporary Sitters this March. We are delighted to be running two solo exhibitions simultaneously, so the audience will participate in the dialogue between Gillbanks’ figurative social-realist works and expressive vibrant canvases by Andrew Litten”.
