We’re pleased to announce Illumine artist, Gavin Bernard!
To learn more and purchase your tickets for Illumine, click here.
Gavin Bernard is a designer and larger-scale installation artist. British by birth, he has called Atlanta home for 25 years, where he has worked in many different creative industries. He is interested in the power of subtlety. His multi-layered geometric installations are rooted in repetition, magnifying singular, small details to create expansive sculptures. Bernard’s work is interested in an unfolding of meaning over time. Beauty is the primary, accessible entry point into the work, while encouraging deeper discovery through repeated interfacing. As the work is altered by natural elements, so too does the viewer’s perception of space, time, and self evolve.
This body of work began as an exploration in mapping the architecture of fallen or dead trees. Through the process of mapping, the frailty of the decomposing tree becomes increasingly apparent, leaving the PVC piping as the enduring remains of the tree’s original essence. This work investigates notions of artificial, plastic realities we have normalized in society. This particular Oakland tree was consumed and ultimately killed by English Ivey, a notorious threat to the life and vitality of trees. The PVC mapping becomes a different kind of invasive vine, used as the symbol to represent the built environment and our propensity to destroy nature for the sake of development. As one of the most essential construction materials, PVC is like an unseen root network in the foundations of our homes and city structures. In What Remains we see this material choking out the tree while also mimicking its form. These sculptures also serve to archive the tree, and are a kind of swan song for the ways human development appropriates and exploits nature for our own short-sighted benefit.
