Rewilding

September 17, 2020 - September 27, 2020

For our first opening in a post-lockdown-mid-pandemic-new-normal world, Jealous are very pleased to welcome David Shillinglaw with ‘Rewilding’.

During these times of isolation, Shillinglaw’s new body of work comments on the adaptability of nature; overtaking man-made areas and given the freedom to grow and be wild in places people are no longer present to control.

Shillinglaw comments on the concepts of his show further “Rewilding describes the returning of areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal and plant species that are no longer naturally found there. This idea has captured my imagination, as I find myself observing the precarious and ever-changing relationship humans have with nature. We arrogantly take advantage of nature, bend it to our will, and push and pull it to suit our growing needs.

The works in this exhibition are a cross pollination of ideas and materials, mixing drawing, painting and collage into one hyperactive patchwork of information. Different mediums wrestle for space, and colours compete for attention. Amidst this chaos there is an attempt to organise space, discover some peace, draw a line under the abundance, and tend to a visual garden. The works celebrate failure and a lack of control. Often uncertain, I am comforted by the words of Carl Jung, ‘In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order’.

‘Rewilding’ will run from 17th – 27th September at Jealous East, 53 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3PT.

I find myself searching for the poetry in the incidental, discovering great significance and mystery in a single flower growing out of a brick wall. I naively attempt to capture and conjure these natural phenomena with pigment and scraps of coloured paper. Creating these artworks is a necessary meditation for me. I use my work to pick up the pieces, joining the dots to compose constellations of personal meaning, and to search for order within chaos.”

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