Elle Gilligan

 

 

"My desire for creating art began when I realised the affect it could have on people; art can inspire, encourage and cause a person to fight for what's important to them. A piece of art can cause an array of emotions in a person and when you connect with a piece it can inspire all sorts of things. That's why, as an artist, I have currently been focusing on protest art. Graffiti art is a great example of protest art; an artist is directly defying the law in order to express their opinions and ideas in a beautifully artistic manner. Therefore my art has been based around the tag line “ART B4 ADS,” which is the idea that more public space should be used for art and not the constant overflow of adverts that our consumer society is bombarded by.

I've been working on graffiti style pieces using MDF boards, experimenting with blending colours through spray paints; the resulting colours are quite similar to abstract paintings or windswept landscapes. Outside the studio I have started a guerrilla art campaign with the tag line emblazoned on stickers all around campus. The two ideas combined hopefully inspire people on campus while giving more weight to the idea that graffiti is becoming a credible art form; whether done by a famous name like Banksy or somebody completely unknown."