Drew Gilmore

by Letha Wilson

Drew’s work takes urban icons or objects and transforms them through specific materials into minimal sculpture and mixed media works. The content of his work is a re-evaluation and contemplation of urban experience though specific building types or geological formation, often skewing or reversing their original meanings. The work has mulitiple layers by which it can be viewed – at first the formal, minimal elements are spare and basic, and although they come off as casual are the result of labored craftsmanship. Beyond the simple beauty of the work, the imagery and objects he chooses bring meaning from their original functions in the world and combine to create a new proposal.

The Containers and the Arboreal brings together two primary elements; live vegatation in the form of shrubbery and peat moss, often associated with landscaping, and miniaturized storage containters carved from MDF. The containers are brought down to a personal scale and devoid of color, an object that becomes both a simple design and intricate system. The actual containers this piece emulates are not only minimal forms but also the common denominator for the global transport of commercial goods and merchandise. Although the exteriors are nearly synonymous and built as modules, the interiors contain endless supplies and goods, moved from producer to supplier to consumer. The trees and dirt, which also can be read as a smaller version of nature, sit in opposition, a stand off in effect.

In All life's work rides in this one hand, the lottery ticket is the starting point for a piece that can be considered a photograph, drawing, and sculpture all in one. The lotto ticket is a small object that can become either a form of entertainment, or addiction, sometimes referred to as the “poor man’s tax”. People clamor to this phenomenon in hope of willing an instant fortune, that one’s problems would be solved with the scratch of a ticket. In Drew’s piece the silver coating simply and minimally covers the entire front of the oversized “ticket”, becoming a drawing board for the viewer to reveal the prize beneath. The image revealed below is one of four, each a photograph of an active volcano, a “prize” that is still far away and perhaps meaningless, yet filled with sublime beauty and an icon of the act of creation and the power of nature.

Conditions are Subject to Change is a sculptural piece which combines elements which in themselves refer to other objects and architecture, and thus create a new relationship. On one side, a generalized form of a mansion is rendered in concrete. As the particulars of the building such as window panes, siding and architectural details have been blurred by the materials, the form fades from its high stature. The building becomes just that, the class connotations and signifiers fading into grey. The other construction, a four-cornered panopticon style that refers to prison and other government facilities, is rendered in a beautiful poplar wood. Its clean lines and smooth façade negate all connotations. More than a simple role reversal, the pieces bring to light what these architecture styles have come to signify - class, wealth and social stature. The molded dirt formation in the middle becomes the mediator – the common goal for each side, an idealized and man-made structure, geometrically informed and a third, perhaps more futuristic aspect unto itself.