Gilly Sheffield - Contemporary Artist

Creative Matters

Gilly Sheffield is a sculptor | weaver living in both Glendowie in Auckland and Wanaka in the South Island.

After a lifetime of making, it was only a few years ago that Gilly developed a more specific art practice using corrugated iron and started to see herself as an artist.

In this episode Gilly shares how she came upon this very iconic NZ material, corrugated iron, how she sources it (with help from her 'Iron Rescue Collective' friends) and the stories this medium tells for her.

She generously shares a personal traumatic event in her family's life that led to the creation of a whakapapa installation of crosses for her home, which marked the beginning of her art practice. She explains how she came to adding woven line and pattern with thread, and the steps she took to learn to weave.

This chat was motivating for me and got me thinking about all the potential of not only Gilly's work but other ideas that came to me using different materials. I'm sure you'll feel the same! We both get excited about the potential of her work, exploring the possibilities of outdoor sculpture, scale, perspective, use of different threads and public installations.

We also reflect on the pricing of her work, the dreaded imposter syndrome and how she came to exhibit her work in a number of NZ art galleries.

Gilly is celebrating a big year with her first group show, with Kylie Rusk and Claudia Aalderink:

ELEMENTS - Turua Gallery, 18th - 30th October 2024

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