The latest guest artist at Fine Arts Whanganui explores the boundaries between art and architecture, in an exhibition named Juncture.
Jillian Whitmore graduated in 2015 from Massey University in Wellington with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours). Currently based in Wellington, though originally from New Plymouth, Jillian spent the firsttwo years of her Fine Arts degree at UCOL in Whanganui.
After Jillian moved to Wellington she became intrigued by the change and transformation of the surroundings in her daily environment, from rural small towns to the second largest city in New Zealand where the pace of change is accelerated. This move had huge influence on her art practice where she found a new passion for architecture and the built environment that she continues to explore in her artwork.
Juncture is Jillian's first solo exhibition as an emerging artist. The exhibition includes a collection of her most recent watercolour works focusing on the exploration of potential future architectural environments. Jillian has exhibited at galleries in both Wellington and Whanganui, and most recently was a finalist in the 2016 Parkin Drawing Prize. Her work "Where Views Collide" was shortlisted for the exhibition.
Her watercolour works of translucent layers and forms depict transformative abstract cityscapes where permanence is increasingly becoming a concept of the past, especially in the contemporary built environment, objects and infrastructure are not meant to last. The relationships we have with places and spaces are so fleeting and temporary, this concept transforms into the physical fleeting environment. One which is forever changing and morphing into new places, making way for new fleeting relationships and perceptions. Jillian uses this concept of temporality to drive her organic architectural designs, proposing a future more fluid city that represents the reality of these ungraspable spaces.
