EXHIBITIONS
RECENT EXHIBITION
Clearing
NEW TEXTILE WORK BY GAIL TURPIN
MOTE 102, EDINBURGH
2 JUNE - 9 JUNE 2024
Something happens to us when we clear our parents’ house after they’ve gone. The responsibility of dismantling a life or lives, to be the person who says what stays and what goes, what is precious, what should be retained, loved and appreciated.
For this exhibition I have unravelled and used some of the precious pieces of fabric and paper, as well as objects, accumulated by my family and in my own life: damask and linen tablecloths, jewellery, service records, clothes I have made or worn through the decades, material collected and received.
Using dyeing, hand-painting, hand- and custom-printing to create new textiles from these existing materials, I have constructed a series of works using patchwork, quilting, appliqué and embroidery.
Throughout the process of making these pieces I’ve found myself waking up keen to get back to them and a comfort I had experienced but had forgotten. They have helped me slide into a place and feeling of belonging.
RECENT
Visual Arts Scotland
THEN & NOW: 100 YEARS OF VISUAL ARTS SCOTLAND
ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY, EDINBURGH
17 FEB - 13 MARCH 2024
Between
SOLO EXHIBITION
UPRIGHT GALLERY, EDINBURGH
12 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER 2023
Our responses to dislocation and pain are as varied and personal as our grief – mine was to draw, compulsively. I drew for two days, almost without stopping, and on the third day found I couldn’t draw any more.
This exhibition began when I was sitting amongst long grasses, by standing stones. I had spent a lot of time with my dog Orla in mutual appreciation of the sights, sounds and scents around us in this special place.
Having said a sad but inevitable goodbye to her a few weeks before, the moment provoked specific memories but also seemed to conjure other, human bereavements reaching back generations, and deepened my reflections on the subject of loss and the preciousness of life.
Society of Scottish Artists
ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY, EDINBURGH
17 DEC 2022 - 10 JAN 2023
Nesting
SOLO SHOW
UPRIGHT GALLERY, EDINBURGH
18 JUNE - 8 JULY 2022
This exhibition gathered together work made during a period of unexpected nesting during the pandemic.
Through close observation of found feathers and nests, I slowed down and settled in to make studies of these beautiful, complex and perfectly imperfect structures.
With pieces developed through drawing, painting, monoprinting and collage, Nesting features works on paper, wood and in textiles.
