Jemma Gunning
JEMMA GUNNING
Jemma is a printmaker based in Bristol specialising in intaglio and lithography processes.
Her practice explores the documentation of urban and industrial decline. Her fascination with recording the passage of time is evoked with nostalgia and the questions that arise around the lost and forgotten landscapes. Urban exploration and documenting architectural decline reconnects the present day to the past. She increasingly feels this is important and a way of recording our heritage before it is obliterated from our society. Drawing, photographing and producing prints permit the experience of authenticity of place which is lacking in our forever developing, shiny and pre-fabricated landscapes. Jemma’s recordings invite the viewer to reflect upon the degeneration of architectural spaces and to experience the city as a living museum.
The use of traditional printmaking processes supports her vision in the subjects that she depicts. Drawing underpins her practice and informs the processes that she uses. Textures and marks are important in her work as it helps express what her eyes witness in the urban landscape. The etching process requires an enforced decay whereby the acid bites into the copper plate, resonating with the natural decay of the structures that she comes to find herself recording.