Gemma Truman
Gemma Graduated from Manchester School of Art, MMU with a Ba(Hons) in Three Dimensional Design in 2008. She has been working with glass and within the glass community ever since.
Gemma went straight from University into a work experience placement at Notarianni Glass. She has continued to work here part-time as Studio Assistant to Amanda Notarianni and Charlie Macpherson.
Spending the last three years in a working glass studio has allowed Gemma to progress and develop her skills to produce her own body of work as well as making bespoke work and orders to commission.
Kiota
Kiota, said Key-o-ta, is Swahili for ‘nest’. This title features in a lot of Gemma’s work as most of her work is informed by the weaver birds of Africa, their nests and how they build them. Each nest is intricately woven by the male bird striving to have the most secure and strong nest of all in an attempt to attract a female. This is why there are so many weird and wonderfully different shaped nests.
One of the main features of these ‘Kiota’ is their entrance, which is usually a very small but well defined or well hidden hole in an otherwise completely enclosed structure. Gemma illustrates this by her use of cut and highly polished openings on all her pieces, even those that ‘appear ‘ to have no opening.
One of the main features of these ‘Kiota’ is their entrance, which is usually a very small but well defined or well hidden hole in an otherwise completely enclosed structure. Gemma illustrates this by her use of cut and highly polished openings on all her pieces, even those that ‘appear ‘ to have no opening.
Community
Community is installation work made up of multiples of Gemma’s hanging Kiota. One species of weaver, named the ‘Social Weaver’ create huge nest communities in trees, where there can be up to one hundred pairs of birds living in one huge communal nest. These nests have been built up over time and on some occasions are even shared with other species of bird. This and Gemma’s interest of how we as humans build our own communities and the social networks that are formed within them have and continue to inform this body of work.
