Gabrielle's Artist Statement

I am a Derbyshire based artist, with experience of living and working in Thailand, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. My work explores everyday domestic objects through large-scale installation, soft sculpture, drawing and textile processes. By reimagining familiar forms through shifts in scale, material and context, I am interested in how ordinary objects can hold emotional, psychological and autobiographical resonance.

Gabrielle painting outdoors

My practice explores everyday domestic objects through large-scale installation, soft sculpture, drawing and textile processes. I am interested in how familiar forms can be reconsidered through shifts in scale, material and context, and in the associations attached to objects within everyday domestic life.

Working predominantly with soft materials and textile techniques, I recreate ordinary objects in ways that alter their relationship to function, materiality and permanence. The translation of utilitarian forms into stitched, tufted or soft sculptural objects allows familiar items to be viewed differently through processes of transformation and repetition.

Drawing forms an important part of my practice, providing a way to observe and examine everyday forms through line. Across both two-dimensional and sculptural work, attention is directed towards commonplace objects and domestic environments that are often overlooked or taken for granted.

I am interested in the ways domestic objects can carry associations connected to memory, absence and personal history. My work is also informed by subconscious association and the ways in which familiar objects can accumulate personal, cultural and psychological significance over time.

Through installation, scale and material transformation, I explore how ordinary objects can shift in meaning when removed from their expected context.

@gabrielledistinartist

gabrielle@gabrielledistinart.com

Gabrielle Distin 2026