JANE PICKERSGILL
Image: www.amandarosephotoco.uk
Bio
Jane Pickersgill lives & works in London, with a studio in Deptford. She graduated with an MFA (Fine Art) from Wimbledon College of Art (UAL). Much of her work is concerned with social mobility and aspiration, characteristics which are manifested in the gentrification of her local neighbourhood - outward ripples from the financial district just across the river.
Before changing paths to study her masters, Jane pursued a successful career in fashion design, which she draws upon in her inter disciplinary art practice. She works in the field of expanded drawing using materials which display the interconnected nature of art and fashion - both of which are fetishized in contemporary culture. Her latest series of work :Couture Drawing, co-opts processes associated with fashion design, using materials which range from organza to parcel paper, perspex, thread and sculptural card constructions. Imagery evokes super modern architecture which is employed as a metaphor for aspiration, ambition.
Her investigations look at characteristics of urban renewal, the allure of city life, its commodification, and the promise of transformation which it poses to a continual influx of newcomers. She herself came to London from a traditional working class mining and farming community in the north of England.
Jane participated in the Processions 2018 events commemorating the centenary of women's suffrage. Her grandmother played a formative role in her early upbringing, and was of the first generation of women to be enfranchised. Following on from Processions she has been engaged in an ongoing project Honouring my Grandmother......Whilst Escaping her Legacy. It analyses and celebrates the skills learnt from her grandmother which are being re-contextualised in her practice. She describes this research as 'digging in the dirt which produced the pearl'.
Education
MFA Fine Art. Wimbledon College of Art (UAL).
PTLLS (Preparation to teach in the lifelong learning sector) Lewisham College.
Dip. Management Studies London South Bank University.
BA (Hons) Fashion. Northumbria University.