Giles Ripley was born in Huddersfield in 1986 and studied at Leeds College of Art & Design between 2004 and 2005 and then at Chelsea College of Art & Design from 2005 to 2008.
He has recently been included in: Departures, The White Nave, Dover; Anticipation, Selfridges Ultralounge, London; XHIBIT 2008, The Hub Gallery, London; Sharp Shorts, The Hub Gallery, London; Vault, Shoreditch Town Hall Basement, London; MC Motors, Millers Avenue, London, Some Quiet Pursuit, The House Gallery, London.
He is included in the following forthcoming exhibitions: New Contemporaries 2008, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool; Best In Show, John Jones Project Space, London.
Ripley’s work engages with the human condition. He is interested in making visible the various contradictions of the self and the compromising nature of human behaviour. Fictional events in his work are often elaborations on something real; exaggerated accounts of mundane experiences. The paradoxical duality between hope and failure in the comic hero has been extremely significant to his interpretation of such behaviour. The notion of a central character and a world that revolves around him is integral to both the work produced and to the manner in which it is made. Though initially a time saving choice, his decision to work with a lo-fi aesthetic and with as few people as possible in the production of his films, has become a focus of the work itself. His own limitations as a filmmaker and a performer are linked to his concerns with hope and failure in the comic hero. Ripley’s work sits between the allure of the slick realm of generic cinema and the assumed integrity of fine art. Rather than a hindrance, the unsure territory of his work provides the opportunity to explore the similarities and differences between these seemingly separate fields.
www.gilesripley.com
