Christine Borland
01 August – 31 October 2010

The second production residency in 2010 was undertaken by one of Scotland’s most respected artists, Christine Borland. Borland was resident at GSS for nine months developing and presenting her ambitious project Cast From Nature which took as its starting point the striking fiberglass sculpture From Nature (credited to John Goodsir F.R.C.S Edinburgh) part of the permanent collection of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.

Borland’s practice negotiates territories in art, ethics, medical humanities and bio-politics. She gathers her source material as a result of research time spent in medical and forensic institutions, observing and participating in their practices. Borland does not merely expose her findings within the gallery but creates deeply poetic works that reinvest the clinical data with a human dimension, introducing aesthetics and ambiguity to an arena dominated by function and objectivity.

Borland trained at The Glasgow School of Art and University of Ulster, Belfast, she has since collaborated with the Medical Research Council’s Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, the Medical School at Glasgow University and the Penninsula Medical School in Cornwall. She was a NESTA Creative Fellow from 2006 – 2009 and an Academic Researcher at The Glasgow School of Art until spring of this year.

Her work has been shown internationally in numerous museums and large-scale exhibitions including the Centre for Contemporary Art of South Australia, Kunstverein Munich, Germany, the Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia, ICA London and at the Lyon Biennial, Manifesta 2, Venice Biennale and Munster Skulpturen Projekte 3. Recent solo presentations include ‘SimBodies & NoBodies’ Galeria Toni Tapies, Barcelona (2010) and at Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (2009), ‘With Practise’ Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance (2007), ‘Preserves’ The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh touring to The Collection, Lincoln (2006), Musee Royal de Mariemont, Mariemont (2005) and Lisson Gallery, London (2004). Borland was short listed for the 1997 Turner Prize.