Details

First Name

Elle

Last Name

Gillette

Username

elleg

Bio

Elle Gillette (born in 1995) is a multimedia artist based in New York. She holds her BA in Animation from the University of the West of England and an MFA in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute. She works from printmaking,  installation, video, performance to sound, websites, and digital media. Elle likes technology, and her works often present the synthesis of trauma determined realities and herself. The depiction of real objects juxtaposed with digital images helps align the tension between the actual memory and the traumatic memory. She adopts a retro style that reflects her childhood experience in the generation of computer development.
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Elle Gillette (born in 1995) is a multimedia artist based in New York. She holds her BA in Animation from the University of the West of England and an MFA in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute. She works from printmaking,  installation, video, performance to sound, websites, and digital media. Elle likes technology, and her works often present the synthesis of trauma determined realities and herself. The depiction of real objects juxtaposed with digital images helps align the tension between the actual memory and the traumatic memory. She adopts a retro style that reflects her childhood experience in the generation of computer development.

Website

ellegillette.net

Country of residence

United States (US)

Statement

Statement

I was born in 1995. And, that particular time frame was the shift from analog to digital technology. The beginning of the end of an era. I want to explore the dichotomy between the contemporary notion of “growing social connection” and the longstanding isolation that is apparent in contemporary human interaction with the rise of the internet. People are looking at screens more than surfaces like paper, canvas, and fabric, which evoke human touch. While technology continues to expand, analog processes diminish. The virtual replaces the material. Dissociation is abundant. I sometimes feel alien to everything that is familiar, so I investigate the world around me in a language that is familiar to me: my objects.
Trauma has been stored in my family’s genes since the Civil War. My father served in “Operation Iraqi Freedom”.

My theory is that my body became a vessel for war when my father was deployed, thus sending anti-nuclear antibodies into my bloodstream. I can’t differentiate between the healthy parts of myself.
I have a hard time integrating the past and present because of this intergenerational trauma. I exist between the two.
I work in a range of materials as I try to understand the subtle shifts in my trauma-determined reality. The depiction of real objects juxtaposed with digital images helps align the tension between the actual memory and the traumatic memory.
By using already existing images or icons, juxtaposed with drawn images, fragments of quotes, or text I draw attention to iconography that initially may be dismissed. I aim to create underlying commentary or semiotics from these images. I use a lot of degraded, or “replicated” imagery because I believe that technology, when viewed through the internet, or on a web-based platform creates a disconnect from the objective reality of the world around us. So anything that’s been run through the web or through technology is changed from its original form. Information is abundant- but how can we decipher what is truly real?
For me, the best way to convey a message is to create a body of work that can be seen both in real space and posted online into cyberspace—a process of replication. Combining printmaking, an ancient practice marked by tradition and replication, with kinetics, computing, and technology is the essence of my practice.
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Nasci em 1995. E esse período específico foi a mudança da tecnologia analógica para a digital. O começo do fim de uma era. Quero explorar a dicotomia entre a noção contemporânea de “conexão social crescente” e o isolamento de longa data que é aparente na interação humana contemporânea com o surgimento da internet. As pessoas estão olhando mais para telas do que para superfícies como papel, tela e tecido, que evocam o toque humano. Enquanto a tecnologia continua a se expandir, os processos analógicos diminuem. O virtual substitui o material. A dissociação é abundante. Por vezes sinto-me alheio a tudo o que me é familiar, por isso investigo o mundo à minha volta numa linguagem que me é familiar: os meus objetos.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions

2022  Pratt Fine Arts and Photography Thesis Show
2021  Moullinex “Inner Child” Art Direction for Aguita Inc
2020  “Without End” COPE NYC & Acumen LLC, Brooklyn, NY
2019  8ball.tv video submission set
2020  “A Letter to My Therapist” Catbox Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019  Halloween Show: Samantha Lober, Simon Kingston, Gabrielle Gillette, Brooklyn, NY
2019  The Yovth: Promotional Bumper, Manhattan, NY
2018  Columbia Summer Printmaking Show: LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Manhattan, NY
2017  #GETBEHINDUS x Planned Parenthood, Manhattan, NY
2017  Vanity Projects x Daata Editions x Art Basel, Manhattan, NY
2016  BBC Listening Project: Mary and Leo, Bristol, UK