Art from found materials by Gary Dickins
Gary Dickins is a self-taught artist based in Taunton, Somerset. Dickins uses a vast range of found materials in his work including handmade paper, canvas, earth, fungi, cheese cloth, stitching, paint, textiles and rusting metal. The work invites the viewer to reflect on our role in maintaining civil society with imagery that acts as a memorial to civilian victims who have lost their lives in contemporary war.
The Conflict series is a response to the atrocities of ethnic cleansing carried out in Kosovo and Bosnia. In his series of works Weapon of War pictured above, Dickins was inspired by the stark photography of Stanley Greene ‘Open Wound: Chechnya 1994-2003’. Here he uses discarded paper, textile and wound dressing stitched together signify the mending of the bodies and minds of women who had been violated during the war.
Weapon of War detail
Weapon of War
Conflict II
Conflict II Detail
Conflict XII
Conflict XII detail
Conflict VII
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Amazing work Gary very poignant
Susan x
The texture of these works is fantastic and the images redolent of buildings, or maps or bark, layered and distressed by turn. This work is innovative and arresting in concept, moving and highly emotive.
Images of thoughts or thoughts of images – good work Gary.
Thought provoking series. Wonderful use of materials, my congratulations Gary.