Giles Watkins

Giles is an artist Born and now based in London. His work aims at capturing the fleeting nature of his immediate surroundings. A current project uses an animal tracking camera as a research tool, taking thousands of images on night walks, building up a visual story and archive of the city and the times we live in and incorporating his own memories and connection with London. Giles draws from the effects of blank-slate urbanism and the home’. His images are activated via a totally unique ceramic/print process that uses oxides and stain, distorting in the kiln, transforming a hard-tone screenprint into a ghostly, continuous tone image, existing in a space resembling absconded snapshots, memories and experiences.

 

These images complement his sculptural work that plays on similar themes and seeks to use material connections between place and community. Through the use of glaze surface decoration, printmaking, and form, Giles highlights the rich amalgamation of colours, forms, and people within his observations of the capital. His recent large-scale tower-like sculpture draws on the topography of Kilburn High Road, a high street he grew up near which is an enigmatic example of London's capacity for almost overwhelming cultural layering and exchange.