Gabrielle Cirocco
Upon returning from her artist residency in Sincresis Spazio D’Arte in Empoli, Gabrielle Cirocco wasted no time and jumped onto her next project, her ‘Waiting For Bricks’ exhibition that opened on the 16th of December at Floating Goose Studios. In our latest spotlight, Gabi tells us who her favourite artists are and what she music she loved listening to in 2016.
Q: Hello Gabi! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?
A: Hi there! Sure, I’m 25 years old, and I graduated from Adelaide Central School of Art last year with a Bachelor of Visual Arts. I live with my lovely Aussie/Italian family and our grumpy cat, Prissy. I love music, film, cooking, staring at things, travelling and long walks on the beach.
Part of Gabi’s ‘Waiting For Bricks’ installation
Q: Who inspires you? What inspires your art?
A: A number of things inspire my practice, such as films, set design and badly renovated properties. Lately, I have become obsessed with unfinished buildings in Italy. I recently returned from an artist residency in Empoli, Tuscany and did some travelling around Europe – I documented unfinished buildings with the attempt to complete them in my own practice.
Q: Do you have a preferred medium?
A: 9B Graphite on thick paper is like catnip to me, and I’m currently falling in love with stitching.
Part of Gabi’s ‘Waiting For Bricks’ installation
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: A little bit brutal, geometric and curious.
Q: Can you please describe your artistic and creative process i.e.: from lingering idea to putting it into practice?
A: I enjoy being quite playful in the studio. When I start with a concept, I like to draw and consider the future of my works, however, I find it is always best to challenge myself and start handling materials in three-dimensional space. I do this so immediate decision making is taking place, which can give the work more rigour and this allows for happy accidents to happen. I like changing the materiality of my works quite a bit from large scale installation to small scale embroidery.
Embroidery from Gabi’s ‘Waiting For Bricks’ installation
Q: Where do you see your art practice taking you in the next five years?
A: Ideally, I’m like the nice version of Donald Trump in the art world who has a lot of money to give back to the arts industry of Australia. However, I’m a realist, so I would love to have some more international shows under my belt and have completed another residency in Italy.
Q: If you could recommend one artist, who would it be?
A: I couldn’t recommend one… For a local, look no further than Roy Ananda – what a legend. Tom Sachs is also one contemporary whom I’m always following and interested in, his concepts are wild.
A long time idol of mine involved in the in the Dada period is Kurt Schwitters – he was a revolutionary artist. I also love the artists of the Arte Povera movement in Italy, they’ve been highly influential on my practice.
Oily Night (2016)
Q: What is your favourite gallery?
A: For local galleries I would say Floating Goose Studios and The Art Gallery of South Australia. For an international, I would say the Pecci Contemporary Art Museum in Prato, Italy which was fantastic and one that I will keep on my radar.
Q: Where can we find more of your work?
A: I had my first local solo show opening on the 16th of December (until 14th January 2017) at Floating Goose Studios. The show features work I completed in Italy and some new work completed in Adelaide. You can also stalk me through Instagram and my website.
Untitled (2015)
Q: What was your favourite music album of 2016?
A: ‘Moon Shaped Pool’ by Radiohead, because they’re my favourite band of all time and it has beautiful tracks on it.
Collage 