Simryn Gill: The (Hemi)Cyclus Of Leaves And Paper

In 2012, Simryn Gill (Malaysia, 1959) gave one of her major works to the MSK, comprising 12 panels with work on paper called Let Go, Lets Go. To honor this gift, it will be presented to the public, eventually accompanied by a book containing an essay by Jan Braet and Catherine de Zegher.

Educated in India and the United Kingdom, Gill works in sculpture, photography, drawing, and writing. She is a systematic collector, especially of books as objects of reverence and dispute. Several of her projects involve erasing or excising the printed word in a microcosmic struggle with authority as embodied by canonical texts. In Pearls (2000– ), for example, she turns beloved volumes into paper pulp beads. Gill is a tinkerer, altering mundane objects and sites via poetically critical sleight of hand. She aggregates her modest interventions into encyclopedic series comprised of dozens of components, in which the smallest gestures — often repeated or expanded — generate resounding statements.