The Evolution of Roxman Gatt

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This week’s exhibition saw the first solo show on isthisit? featuring various bodies of work from Roxman Gatt, an artist who goes against the very idea of medium specificity, with her work fluidly translating from painting to poetry, film to photography, and culminating in high quality 3D rendered images inspired by the gluttony and reflective nature of the internet. When you first encounter ‘The Evolution of Roxman Gatt’ you’re presented with a computer generated bedroom resembling a teenagers’, with a stack of Dazed and Confused magazines tossed to the floor and a suspiciously clean plate on the bedside table. This is where your journey into Gatt’s personal space begins, voyeuristically reading her sexualised post-internet poetry whilst nodding your head to a sombre sounding song about lost love. In many of the works Gatt is responding to the intimate connections we have with our devices, from the poem ‘Mayonnaise’ that sees her ‘sleep(ing) tight’ with the ‘peaceful light’ emanating from her computer screen to ‘hey can u c me’, a music video that feels like it’s been specially made for the fundamentally broken relationship that she has with the screen, creating this ‘spurned lover’ persona that’s obsessed with the physical embodiment of the net and wants them back in their life, ‘liking’ their status’ and ‘hearting’ their Instagram’s, proclaiming ‘cuddle me’ until someone acknowledges her existence. Whilst navigating the various pages dedicated to the different areas of Gatt’s practice, I feel like I’m beginning to reflect on my own intimate relationship with my phone or computer, objects in my life that are rarely turned off and are always with me, could I switch off if I wanted to, or would these inanimate objects creep back into my life like an unwanted friend or an ex-partner? I don’t know, and don’t think I will for some time, due to the ongoing and never-ending relationship I have with the phone in my pocket and the laptop in my backpack…

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Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight