Born 1965
Lives Los Angeles
The End
2007
Coloured paper, gouache and acrylic on paper
164x275cm
Courtesy The Hammer Museum
At once fantastically sinister and oddly familiar, Francesca Gabbiani’s lavish unpopulated interiors and luminous landscapes explore the proximity between interior and exterior, and the degree to which the outside world is the product of imaginative projection. Featuring common tropes familiar from the horror films that the artist cites as sources for her work – rustling leaves, baroque candlesticks, lapping flames – images such as Under the Beasts (2007) are doubly cinematic in their conspicuous framing and dramatic use of light and shadow. Immediately surprising, then, is the artist’s working method, which involves the layering of intricately cut pieces of paper. And yet this rudimentary fabrication reinforces the main point: that reality reflects our carefully crafted desires and fears. (CG)
