Gil Eva Craig

Gil Eva Craig is a photographer involved in the creative art scene since the early 90’s and in a wide range of practices, including the sonic arts. Since 2013, she’s been part of nine group shows and two solo exhibitions.  As she says from herself:

 

‘If I'm out photographing scenic vista's with friends, I'll turn my back on the view and photograph the weird stuff in the carpark. My holiday photographs always disappoint - no one can tell where I have been. I leave it up to other photographers to make images of the ubiquitous Wanaka tree, or the Eiffel Tower or pretty sunsets. If you want wastelands and wetlands and perplexities - I am here for you.’

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Gil Eva Craig was part of the Nomadic Art Gallery's digital exhibition "Alienation". Contextualisation of Craig's work within the exhibition theme: 

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Gil Eva Craig - Heterotopian borders (2018) - Printed; edition of 6 (33x33cm) - Courtesy of the artist ⁣

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This photograph is part of the series “Heterotopian Borders”. This series was first exhibited at Photospace Gallery in Wellington. In that exhibition and through this work, the photographer focused on the border of “heterotopian spaces” which the artist explained as "the un-defined areas on the edges of spaces, both material and un-material. These are the physical areas of transition where a space ends, sometimes abruptly or transitions to either an ‘other’ space or to a ‘non’ space, and, also as an observer or outsider on the boundaries of the sociocultural constructs within spaces.” ⁣

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We would explain this photograph to our imaginary friends as a photograph where time and space seem to collapse, an imaginary setting where, in your dreams, the verdict is passed whether or not you are going to heaven or hell. It's a transitional space where everything is at one. What's particularly striking about this work is its aesthetic and metaphysical mystery. A Louis XIV chair in the middle of a kind of non-existent open-air theatre, where nature is the spectator and you the voyeurist. Its composition and perfect layering of colours let you read it from bottom to top. In that movement, you notice how much this work of art exudes a spiritual stillness. You feel like being there but not there yet, you whisper but nobody can hear you, you try to be quiet but the internal noise is too overwhelming...⁣

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Gil Eva Craig - Plastic bag in the Sky (2020) - Printed; edition of 3 (49,4 x 36,9cm) - Courtesy of the artist

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This photograph we chose from Gil-Eva Craig’s oeuvres evokes totally different emotions than the dramatized aesthetic of the photograph from the Heterotopian Borders series. Here, we are in the actual space and confronted with a banal scene: a plastic bag flapping in the clear blue sky.

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In a way, this worldwide lockdown has made the everyday so poetic again. Made us appreciate the little things again: a plastic bag flapping in the clear blue sky. In India, people can hear birds whistling again. In Nepal, they can now see the Himalayas from a distance, while in China the sky reappeared.

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This makes us wonder if we can ever go back to the race we were used to.

This picture is full of good intentions and radiates something naive: good hope and beautiful intentions for a world we had ignored for too long.

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