David Giles

Biography

Giles paints about us in a time when history has shifted our perception of things. What his work gives us is a moment to contemplate this new existence. Today the world sees itself as sitting alone in the midst of our galaxy, as this sits amongst a myriad of others, but we also see ourself as part of some universal truths, the primary one being that we are all made, that everything that contains matter is made, in a patterned sense, through the same binary structures. How will we operate at a local level in the future, what politics can or will govern our new sense of connected identity and intuitive responsibility for that beyond our self. Giles' colour fields delve into the politics of locality and the possible socio-political futures we may have but are also I think a testimony to arts willingness to engage with non-closure and the aesthetics of continuity. As photography, the lens and the computer go to greater and greater lengths to unfold a rational universe it is reassuring to see that imagination, as it already exists in Giles' work, is still willing to go on a journey without finality. By Ric Spencer (Ric Spencer is a curator, lecturer in art history and art theory and former art critic for the West Australian)