The Kiss
mixed media, wooden and glazed box
2020-
About the work
- Location
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Country: Holy See
City: Vatican City
Place: British Embassy
Graham Gingles’ constructed boxes have been described as ‘repositories of memory’. Like theatre sets, where spaces unfold gradually, these intricate constructions incorporate objects made by the artist. Gingles also draws on a vocabulary of architectural forms and symbols (life, death, relics). The Kiss is a memorial piece inspired by Victorian mourning jewellery:
'I am interested in what we leave behind after we die, even small trivial things, like the blotted lipstick print of lips on a piece of paper ...a printed image of a rose; actually the last rose she [artist’s friend] was given before she died'.
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About the artist
Graham Gingles (born 1943) studied at the Belfast College of Art and the Hornsey College of Art. In 1980, he was awarded the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Scholarship to the British School at Rome. His first solo exhibition was at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast in 1981 and he has since exhibited extensively at home and internationally. In 1988, Gingles received the Gold Medal from the Royal Academy Ulster. He is well known for his constructed boxes which he started making in 1969. His works are in major public collections including the Ulster Museum, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast, the Irish Arts Council, and the Office of Public Work (Ireland).
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Explore
- Places
- Subjects
- Materials & Techniques
- mixed media (art material), wood, mixed media sculpture, box (as object component)
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Details
- Artist
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Graham Gingles (1943 - )
- Title
- The Kiss
- Date
- 2020
- Medium
- mixed media, wooden and glazed box
- Dimensions
- open: height: 56.5 cm; width: 25.5 cm; depth: 17.0 cm closed: height: 56.5cm; depth: 40.8cm; depth: 16.25
- Acquisition
- Purchased from the artist March 2021, through the Art XUK project 2020-21
- Inscription
- Boxed text (handwritten - signed) - ""THE KISS"" Graham Gingles
- Provenance
- The artist; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 31 March 2021
- GAC number
- 18973