Design and Art Australia Online

Assemblage artist, painter, illustrator and printmaker, Jane Gillings was born in 1965 in Sydney. Although she was keen to study art, she acceded to her parents’ concern that she gain a 'professional qualification’, and thus commenced study, completing her Dental Technician’s Certificate at Randwick College of TAFE, Sydney, in 1986. Having acquired a variety of skills, such as wax modelling and casting, Gillings sought to transfer these skills to other fields of interest. She successfully gained a temporary position at the Australian Museum, Sydney, where she installed and dismantled displays and gained valuable experience in taxidermy and model making. During her time there, she completed courses in Anatomical Preservation and Display (1987), Ornithology of Australian Birds (1988), Anatomical Museum Methods (1988) and Museum Techniques 2 (1989) at Sydney Technical College.

Between 1993 and 1997, Gillings completed a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Chinese Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney. Her study of Chinese culture was inspired by her work in ink painting and calligraphy and led her to exhibit her work in this area in various exhibitions, including the Australian Chinese Painting Society Annual Exhibitions of 1992, 1993 and 1994. In 1994 she was awarded a Highly Commended in Chinese Calligraphy at the 1994 Campbelltown City Show. Clearly, Gillings was adept at transferring new skills and areas of expertise into creative activities in which she was able, by virtue of her distinctive educational background, to experiment with a large range of media.

Drawing inspiration from the photography of her friend Greg Lippiatt, as well as the work of Cressida Campbell and Margaret Preston, 2001 saw Gillings explore her love of printmaking and exhibit a collection of relief prints at Gallery 1A, Surry Hills, Sydney. Gillings made use of the fine motor skills she had developed in her previous dental technician training. The collection showcased 28 of her works, capturing, in the words of one reviewer, her “views of Sydney buildings, homes, people and environs, inspired by friends’ photographs and her own keen eye” (Low 2001). Her lino print depicting the The Roy Turner Gate was awarded the North Sydney Leagues Club Sporting Prize in the North Sydney Art Prize, 2002.

Having worked for some time in printmaking, Gillings then turned her attention to the creative use of recycled materials. She began experimenting with plastic assemblage, producing artworks such as Gotham(2004), Lines of Days (2004) and Arnolfini Marriage (2006). Her artwork was exhibited in the 'Junk Love’ (2002) exhibition at Reverse Garbage, Marrickville, Sydney, which stressed the need for reuse in contemporary living, and then 'Real Refuses’ (2002) at the Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney, where she was also runner-up in the Tap Gallery Environmental Art Award. Gillings also exhibited in the Tap Gallery’s Environmental Art Prize the following year. Small scale replicas of 1950s and 1960s garage doors were exhibited in 'Sculpture by the Sea’, Bondi, Sydney in 2003.

Gillings then focused her attention more on plastic sculpture, entering Human Waste into the 2007 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, in which she was a finalist. Her work in recycled materials often carries messages regarding society’s ceaseless consumption, and her contribution to the group exhibition 'Fragile Planet’ (2007) at NG Art Gallery, Chippendale, Sydney, is testament to this. The exhibition explored the division between society’s want to save the planet and their simultaneous addiction to consumption. In the same year, NG invited artists to interpret what 'home’ meant to them on 50cm x 50cm canvases for their 'There is No Place Like Home’ exhibition. On this occasion NG also donated a percentage of the proceeds to Mission Australia. Gillings contributed Sea Grass in acrylic paint on board. During this time, Gillings was working on her installation for the 2007 Sydney 'Sculpture by the Sea’ exhibition, for which she created her 'Wreath’, a colourful collection of plastic assemblage flowers arranged in a wreath formation created from recycled plastic.

Mission Australia is an organisation with which Gillings was already familiar through her work as coordinator of their Creative Youth Initiatives Artworks! Program. The program allows disadvantaged youths to explore their creativity through means such as Gillings’ art classes. For her work there, television presenter Catriona Rowntree nominated Gillings for the Pride of Australia medal (2006), in the role-model category. In 2007 and 2008, Gillings was a City of Sydney Council guest participant at the 'Creative Pros’ forum, speaking to young people interested in careers in the creative industry.

Her 2008 solo exhibition 'Found Feathered Friends’ at NG Gallery, with life-sized Australian birds constructed of plastic, wire and hot-melt glue, emphasised the importance of protecting our native wildlife. At the centre of the collection is the Bowerbird, a homage in recycled plastics to the avian creature whose inspirational habit of collecting colourful objects has led Gillings refers to it as her 'artistic totem’ (Hynes n.d.). These birds were used in Gillings’ installation Remember This at the 2009 Carriageworks exhibition, 'Contemporary Art From The City Fringe’.

In 2009 the Newcastle Region Art Gallery, ABC Radio Newcastle and Hunter Water sponsored a campaign to promote awareness of the negative effect of water bottles on the environment. 'Hit the Bottle’ encouraged residents of Newcastle to donate their used water bottles from which Gillings and artist Alison McDonald worked collaboratively to create an installation entitled Watermark for Newcastle Region Art Gallery.

Gillings’ work is held in the collections of Westmead Children’s Hospital and the North Sydney Leagues Club.

Writers:

De Lorenzo, Catherine Note:
Binskin, Miriam Note:

Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2010

Status:

peer-reviewed