Jill Townsley MRSS

Jill's work emphasises the act of making, its system or process. Looking beyond the more usual subject or object, towards procedures that oscillate between process as generative and/or degenerative.

Working in this way raises questions such as: How do our culturally agreed procedural systems influence the way we construct or deconstruct our world? More concisely, the work points towards the gap between human processes (systems of research, innovation, and culture), and the tangible impact of those systems on the world around us, including the difficult space between human processes and natures ecology. Questions of process are especially important today as we handover many social and cultural systems to machines, employing systems that are much more successful at applying processes, and draconianly repeating them.

Questioning the underlying logic of a system, has always connected Jill’s artwork to scientific enquiry. The sculptures invariably embody scientific or biomimetic structures through their form or image. Consequentially the work has made important connections with scientists and scientific research centres internationally, often collaborating across disciplines, to make new artwork that draws together science, art, and political community.