Installation Works Create Multi-Dimensional Spaces Of Imaginary Landscapes

Damien Gilley's perspectival installations create alternative landscapes that go beyond gallery walls.

July 31, 2013, 1:00pm

Fortress at Worksound Gallery

Portland-based artist Damien Gilley makes site-specific installations to create a new, multi-dimensional space of imaginary landscapes through line graphics and optical illusions. Using simple materials such as vinyl tape, wood, aluminum, latex and auto paint, he actualizes his drawings as perspectival installations that break down paradigms of flatness.

Axis Index at Suyama Space

With a background in graphic design, Gilley has created a process of translating his works from the digital stage, using Illustrator and Photoshop, to the physical presentation using projections to hand craft his installations.

He explains that his work "plays off the existing structure to suggest an expanded field beyond the gallery walls”. The work in discussion, Cashmere Fatigue (below), depicts an alluring, yet alarming retail store entrance. The aim was for a space that “offers an expansion of commerce in unpredictable ways.”

Cashmere Fatigue at East/West Projects

His work draws inspiration from a slew of sources including MC Escher, Matthew Ritchie, and Julie Mehretu. Beyond the work of other artists, Gilley also cites science fiction, non-Euclidean geometry, the King Abdullah Economic City, as well as vintage video game and computer graphics as influences in his work.

You can check out some of his designs below.