We congratulate EO Gill as the recipient of the $30,000 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship for 2018. This Fellowship, offered by Create NSW aims to support early career artists to undertake a self-directed program of professional development, and is Artspace’s key exhibition showcase, shaping emerging contemporary artistic practice in New South Wales.
From left: Minister for the Arts, The Hon. Don Harwin; Artist and 2018 NSW VAEF Recipient, EO Gill; Artspace Executive-Director, Alexie Glass-Kantor; Manager of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Collection, Shani Jones. Photograph: Zan Wimberley
The announcement was made by Minister for the Arts, The Hon. Don Harwin at the opening of the ‘NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship’ exhibition at Artspace, Sydney on Thursday 15 November.
‘Once more Artspace has crafted a fantastic exhibition of some of the most promising emerging visual artists from across NSW and it’s clear that our artists here tonight are set for very big things, ‘ said the Minister.
Gill was selected from a finalist group of ten Sydney-based artists, whose work is on view until 16 December and includes Kieran Butler, Biljana Jancic, Shivanjani Lal, JD Reforma, Marikit Santiago, Georgia Saxelby, Shireen Taweel, Kai Wasikowski and Jodie Whalen.
‘EO’s work was selected by our expert panel as the standout from this very talented group and I’m excited that they will use this opportunity to learn from some of their most inspirational international peers in queer video art,’ continued Harwin.
The Fellowship leads Gill to a three-month professional development program in Toronto, Montreal and New York, researching and developing skills in video-making and expanding their networks. EO will conduct two mentorships with Toronto-based academic T.L. Cowan and artist Bridget Moser, along with a self-directed research trip to queer video art distributors and archives throughout Canada.
Gill’s practice is based on the moving image to explore queer intimacy, gender dysmorphia and queer ways of looking in the Australian suburban context in which they grew up. Conceiving loose plots and working with non-performers, including friends and family, Gill toys with reality TV and documentary modes in their work.
2018 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship recipient – EO Gill, Let it Wail if it Wants To, 2018. Photograph: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy the artist and Artspace, Sydney
The site-specific installation Let it Wail if it Wants To (2018) features a selection of new and existing video and photographic works by Gill that speak to expanded notions of gender, sexuality, pornography and the body with relation to class. The works are intimate, made with and for the artist’s community. Their intention was to explore different possibilities for care and touch, as the subjects depicted cut, probe, rub and spit on each other, as well as highlight the urgency and importance of kinship for queer communities.
Gill’s most recent exhibitions in Sydney include Alaska Projects, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Museum for Contemporary Art Australia and Performance Space, and has also completed residencies with Banff Centre for Creativity, Canada, the National Film & Sound Archive, Canberra, NES Residency, Iceland and Bundanon Trust, NSW. This year, Gill completed an MFA at UNSW Art & Design.
