Work
Gail Wight / Scenic Overlook / Installation View
Gail Wight / Scenic Overlook / Installation View – silk prints pooled
Gail Wight / In The Time of Anemones (video still) / 2018 / video, holographic film, plexiglas, wood & metal findings / 12 x 12 inches, 20 minutes
Gail Wight / In The Time of Anemones (video still) / 2018 / video, holographic film, plexiglas, wood & metal findings / 12 x 12 inches, 20 minutes
Gail Wight / Scenic Overlook / Installation View
Gail Wight / In The Time of Anemones (video still) / 2018 / video, holographic film, plexiglas, wood & metal findings / 12 x 12 inches, 20 minutes
Gail Wight / Scenic Overlook / Installation View
Gail Wight / In The Time of Anemones (video still) / 2018 / video, holographic film, plexiglas, wood & metal findings / 12 x 12 inches, 20 minutes
Gail Wight / Scenic Overlook / Installation View
Gail Wight / In The Time of Anemones (video still) / 2018 / video, holographic film, plexiglas, wood & metal findings / 12 x 12 inches, 20 minutes
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 64 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 55 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 58 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 56 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 21 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
Gail Wight / Zantedeschia priscus / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight / Potentilla termes / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight / Cypripedium incesto / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight /Silene laevis / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight /Strelitzia pestis / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight /Trifolium vermiculus / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight /Tragopogon inrito / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 6 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 59 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 54 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 53 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 51 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 52 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
Gail Wight / Chrysanthemum Ichneumon / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight /Arum Dipterius / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Wight takes flight with The Hexapodarium. Gail Wight collected fly wings from succumbed flies, (imagine picking those tiny wings from decomposing fly bodies.) Magnifying the severed translucent wing many fold she ingeniously transformed these beastly leftovers into breathtakingly complex, exquisite botanical gardens.
Gail Wight /Convallaria Alarium / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Gail Wight / Camelia Micantis / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
Wight takes flight with The Hexapodarium. Gail Wight collected fly wings from succumbed flies, (imagine picking those tiny wings from decomposing fly bodies.) Magnifying the severed translucent wing many fold she ingeniously transformed these beastly leftovers into breathtakingly complex, exquisite botanical gardens.
Gail Wight /Datura Dipteri / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 16 x 16 inches framed / Edition of 6
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 20 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 35 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 19 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 24 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 7 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 9 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 5 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Copepodilia 16 / 2017 / pigment print on Arches aquarelle / 12 x 9 inches (30.96 cm x 23.22 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Hydraphilia / 2009 / time-lapse video, 9 monitors / 62 x 47 inches (159.96 cm x 121.26 cm)
GAIL WIGHT / Papillons Noir 5 / 2006/09 / silk, paper, plexiglass, light, electronics, insect pins / 5.5 x 5.5 x 3.5 inches
Gail Wight / Blow Out 1 / 2015 / dye sublimation print on aluminum / 20 x 16 inches / Edition of 4
Blow Out, forty-four prints of smashed test tubes, each reminiscent of an astronomical event and with a unique signature, as with snowflakes.
Gail Wight / Land of Flies-Summer / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 15 x 120 inches framed / Edition of 6
The flies that became The Hexapodarium are assembled into lavish gardens representing 4-seasons. An exercise in extreme photography, these images contain between 500-600 layers. The seasonal gardens are populated with many plants and animals, not yet subject to the convergence that make up The Hexapodarium flowers.
Gail Wight / Land of Flies-Winter / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 15 x 120 inches framed / Edition of 6
The flies that became The Hexapodarium are assembled into lavish gardens representing 4-seasons. An exercise in extreme photography, these images contain between 500-600 layers. The seasonal gardens are populated with many plants and animals, not yet subject to the convergence that make up The Hexapodarium flowers.
Gail Wight / Land of Flies-Spring / 2014 / archival metallic pearl paper, archival digital print / 15 x 120 inches framed / Edition of 6
The flies that became The Hexapodarium are assembled into lavish gardens representing 4-seasons. An exercise in extreme photography, these images contain between 500-600 layers. The seasonal gardens are populated with many plants and animals, not yet subject to the convergence that make up The Hexapodarium flowers.
Gail Wight / Ground Plane 8 / 2008 / ultrachrome print on Hahnemuhle sugarcane paper / 42 x 42 inches (108.36 cm x 108.36 cm)
Ground Plane, prints formed from hundreds of exact-scale images of small animal bones formed into unique snowflake crystals. Selected from the Hadly Lab collection at Stanford University, the bones are from one to ten thousand years old.
Gail Wight / Solar Burn: Mescaline / 2011 / burned vellum / 18 x 15 inches (46.44 cm x 38.7 cm)
With wit and humor, Wight sets our imaginations in motion, in this instance, Gail came upon spider studies conducted in 1948, by a German pharmacologist, P. N. Witt, who conducted experiments to see the effects of drugs on spiders. The drugs administered were LSD, Mescaline, Chloral Hydrate, Caffeine, Benzedrine, and Marijuana. The results of his experiments – spiders get stoned, and spin webs reflective of their altered state! NASA also wanted to test the effects of spiders on drugs, thus in 1995 they replicated the German study with similar results – spiders get stoned, with the added dimension that web detection might be a good method of drug detection – so keep those drugs safely tucked away from spiders! Anyway, fast forward to our Stanford Professor, Gail Wight, who decided to replicate the altered webs on vellum, with the aid of a magnifying glass and the sun. Thus sat Gail, under her persimmon tree, with floppy hat and gloves, following the sun, rotating around the tree, slowly burning the spider web drawings on the vellum. You can bet there were many a spider hovering in the tree above.
Gail Wight / Ground Plane 8 / 2008 / ultrachrome print on Hahnemuhle sugarcane paper / 42 x 42 inches (108.36 cm x 108.36 cm)
Ground Plane, prints formed from hundreds of exact-scale images of small animal bones formed into unique snowflake crystals. Selected from the Hadly Lab collection at Stanford University, the bones are from one to ten thousand years old.
Gail Wight / Center of Gravity / 2008 / 15 digital pigment prints on kozo washi paper, plexiglass, light, electronics, motion sensor, sound / 96 x 3 x 3 inches each
Center of Gravity is in a dark room. Upon entering, one encounters 8- foot vertically suspended plastic poles, the same size as core samples taken from the earth; only Wight’s core samples are constructed of 8-foot pigment prints, photographs of fragile environments taken on her travels. The images are viewed as though looking through a kaleidoscope. Each 5-inch-diameter pole is lined with one of the photographs, and internally lit. Moving through the various ecosystems the viewer hears recordings indigenous to the area, i.e. coyotes wailing, insects and birds calling. The sheer beauty of the installation belies the fact that as science moves forward to uncover the impact of global warming and human encroachment on fragile environments, those ecosystems are becoming the “disappeared,” the core samples our only link to the nature that once was.
Gail Wight / Center of Gravity (detail) / 2008 / 15 digital pigment prints on kozo washi paper, plexiglass, light, electronics, motion sensor, sound / 96 x 3 x 3 inches each
Videos
BIO
Gail Wight’s wit and humor usually suspend our disbelief with her elegant reformulations. The Spider and the Fly, Wight takes fly wings she collected from succumbed flies, and magnifies them many fold. She then composes exquisite botanical gardens that are breathtakingly complex. “Working primarily in sculpture, video, interactive media and print, I attempt to construct biological allegories that tease out the impacts of life sciences on the living: human, animal, and other. The interplay between art and biology, theories of evolution, cognition and the animal state-of-being are themes that have, over the last two decades, become central to my art.”
Wight’s continued interest in deep time manifested in earlier exhibitions where she created complex photographic mandalas from tiny rodent fossil remains, Ground Plane, 2012. With The Spider and the Fly, Wight expanded upon the fossil record creating future relics where flies became flowers. “The fossil record for insects dates back approximately 400 million years. Often, when I find an expired fly on my studio windowsill, Iʼm comforted by the knowledge that these small creatures will most likely be glancing their way around spider webs long after the human-centric environment outside my window has disappeared. Thereʼs a lovely concept in biology called “convergence”, which attempts to explain the emergence of similar characteristics among vastly different plants and animals. In The Spider and the Fly, I toy with the visual manifestations of convergence, and hint at potential psychological similarities.”
Gail Wight is Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University where she focuses on experimental media. Her work has been exhibited internationally in venues including: the Natural History Museum, London, UK; the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK; and Foxy Productions, New York City, NY. Wightʼs art has been featured in: Art & Science Now by Stephen Wilson; Ingeborg Reichleʼs Kunst aus dem Labor and Art in the Age of Technoscience; Sherry Turkleʼs Evocative Objects; thing world: International Triennial of New Media Artedited by Zhang Ga and Fan Diʼan; and Bioart by William Myers as well as many other books and catalogs. Collections include: MoMA, Yale University, San Jose Museum of Art, Sevilleʼs Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo; Rene di Rosa Foundation; and Berkeley Art Museum among others. Wight was nominated as a Visionary Pioneer of Media Art by Ars Electronica in 2014.