JULIA GATIE

 ‘The Last Kiss’ & ‘Home’ are both incidental collections of work which focus on how difficult it is emotionally and physically for women to remove themselves from an abusive relationship.  The work is based on a personal experience when in a relationship which after two years turned violent. ‘The Last Kiss’ is a large scale wall based montage of collected last kisses* which have been reproduced using darkroom techniques. The piece is intended to create an understanding of the timescale involved from the decision to leave an abusive relationship to its end.  

* The morning I decided to leave I put my make up on as usual, blotted my lips and thought to myself, ‘This is the last kiss.’  I put the blotted tissue in an envelope as a reminder to myself that by the end of the day I would no longer be there.  Approximately three years later and by the time the relationship ended I had collected in a box around 400 last kisses.

‘Home’ represents the ups and downs of being in such a situation. The domestic environment and emotional turmoil acts as a prison, making the person overshadowed by its events and unpredictable outcomes. Also represented is the ever changing focus of the dilemma as opinions and feelings are constantly in flux creating a hidden battle with the occurring events and it social stigma.

Both ‘Home’ and ‘The Last Kiss’ were exhibited in Scarborough Art Gallery during 2006 Then in 2014 at the Dean Clough, Halifax with accompanying video and text based works titled ‘Silent Listening’.