Mary Hurrell
Artists in residence for the month of December 2022
Mary Hurrell (b. South Africa) is an artist based in London. In her work sound production, live performance and sculpture perform similar functions; to explore movement and the body as a language and to communicate on a physical and emotional level. Moulding and forming apparatus for the body, both sonic and material, she is interested in unpacking dualities and notions of the body through states of presence and absence, fluidity and restraint, the organic and synthetic, to create sensorial environments and performances.
She has presented performances and exhibitions with Nicoletti Contemporary, Cafe OTO, The Bower, Jupiter Rising Festival, The Roberts Institute of Art, South London Gallery, Bold Tendencies and Whitechapel Gallery. In 2018 she produced mappings, a trilogy of live and installation based works conceived as one choreography across three spaces at Flat Time House, Kunstraum (UK) and Centro Botin (Spain). Her work has been reviewed in Frieze, Figure Figure and Mousse Magazine. In 2021, her sound work Blush Response was awarded the Because of Many Suns prize by Collezione Taurisano. Recent residencies include Yamakiwa Gallery (Japan), Flat Time House (London) and Skaftfell Center For Visual Art (Iceland).
Mary has been visiting Iceland since 2004 and her residency at Gil Society will be her fifth trip and third artist residency here. During her stay in Akureyri she will be beginning research and development toward a new body of work that continues her ongoing interest in water and its changes in state in relation to the body and its physical and emotional experience.
