Rebecca Gould was born in 1980 in Inverness, Scotland. In 1998/9 she embarked on a Foundation Course in Art and Design at Coleg Menai/North Wales, which she passed with distinction. From 1999 to 2002 she studied Fine Art at University of Wales Institute Cardiff (BA hons/first). In 2004/5 she did her MA at Centrel Saint Martin in London.
Artist's Statement: "My practice has a grotesquely nostalgic presence, having this Disney-like depiction of innocence allows more disturbing elements such as withdrawal and isolation to be amplified.
The physicality that film doesn’t have is brought to life by coupling with sculptural objects. Film and sculpture share and reciprocate, creating something that has moved beyond the object as a sculptural form.
A sense of fantasy and fun combines with the notion of theatricality.
My work has a transformative quality to filter the real and tell stories without altogether collapsing into the entirely fictitious and imaginary.
I am now developing a new series of work inspired by Helen of Troy from The Illiad and The Trojan War. I am still working with the moving image and sculptural forms - at the moment building large scale constructions from cardboard and having monitors inside and part of the installations.
“The sculptural form functioning as an "in-between", a meeting point connecting the real world to a world of fantasy and fairytale. Kitsch dressing tables, luridly-colourful carts and a towering lighthouse contain the films, as the candy cottage that conceals the oven. Utilising manifestly low-tech means as employed for home videos, Gould wields the camera in a provocative, flirtatious, voyeuristic manner. Her work is highly-stylised, intelligent, disturbing and yet queasily entertaining. The worlds that Gould constructs, usually via a form of nonlinear narrative and typically fuse personal memories within a larger historical compass derived from fairytales, folklore and adult fantasy.”
Literary Mentions in:
Hackney Gazette, August 2006.
The National Eisteddfod, Catalogue, 2006.
a-n Magazine, Beauty and The Beast, review, March 2006.
Gallery Guide Europe, 2006.
This is Penarth, Article, 2005.
“Common Area”, Issue 2, Drawings, July/August 2005.
“Common Area”, Issue 1, Drawings, April 2005.
Daily Post, ‘Childlike View is Sweet Inspiration’, Article, 2003.
The National Eisteddfod, Catalogue, Article, 2002.
Television Work:
Cwmni Da, Work featured in Young Wales 6, Royal Cambrian Academy, 2003.
Work featured in ‘A Mind to Kill’ Sky One and Channel 5, 2001.
Solo Exhibitions:
2006 Beauty and The Beast, The Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead.
2003 Dixi Trixi, Spotlight @ Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno.
2002 Ophelia, outside The Welsh Museum, Cardiff.
.. Rebecca Gould
