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Thousand sheets

In this body of work I focus on how space, structure, and restraint can shape a sense of interiority. I am less interested in narration or depiction than in creating immersive conditions.The paintings hold a quiet emotional register. They are intentionally inward and controlled, allowing intensity to remain contained rather than expressed openly. I want the viewer to slow down and enter a sense of duration and immersion rather than read an image quickly.

Painting by Sarah Gilbert of architectural modules with flowers and cubes in the air on a blue background and clouds

Colours are used sparingly and without decorative intent. Blues, greys, pale pinks, off whites, and greens shape the space and create mood. Colour functions structurally rather than expressively. Even when brighter tones appear, they remain embedded within an overall restraint.

Forms in these paintings are deliberately unstable. Architectural planes and volumes appear assembled yet provisional, interrupted or partially dissolved. Edges blur and alignments resist closure. I am interested in the tension between construction and deconstruction, in how forms emerge, destabilize, and reconfigure without arriving at resolution. This instability reflects a continuous process rather than a finished state. The work moves between interior and exterior spaces, often without clarifying the difference. Enclosed rooms open onto landscapes and architectural structures expose sky. I think of the paintings as spatial accumulations, similar to a mille feuille, where planes, surfaces, and spaces stack and interpenetrate without hierarchy.

Rose Madame. Oil paint and acrylic on aluminium sheet. 100 x 100 cm. 2019

Each layer remains distinct while contributing to a larger structure that cannot be grasped all at once.​ I avoid narrative cues and descriptive settings. I am not trying to tell stories or depict events. Instead each painting functions as a self contained field of intensity. The works can be entered from multiple points and do not rely on linear progression. This way of working is informed by the idea of the multiverse, where multiple realities coexist simultaneously rather than resolving into a single perspective. The paintings suggest parallel spaces and possible states rather than a unified or stable world. The title Thousand Sheets refers to the ideas developed in A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze and Guattari. I am interested in concepts of becoming, multiplicity, and non hierarchical organization. These ideas shape how I think about movement, transformation, and connection within the work, not as illustrations but as ways of structuring thought through painting. My approach is also informed by early abstract painting, particularly the spatial experiments of Suprematism and the work of El Lissitzky. His use of floating planes, shifting viewpoints, and constructed space has been important in how I think about painting as an active spatial system rather than a window or a surface. Like Suprematist composition, geometry in my work is not symbolic but operative. It is a tool for organizing tension, balance, and instability.

Painting by Sarah Gilbert of architectural modules or house in pink and black with a green plant

Thousand sheets. Acrylic and oil paint on aluminium sheet. 100 x 125 cm. 2019

Painting by Sarah Gilbert of architectural interior scene with a wooden floor

Parquet. Gloss and oil paint on aluminium sheet, 100 x 100 cm. 2018

Painting by Sarah Gilbert of architectural interior scene with a dress and shoes

Waybe. Gloss and oil paint on aluminium sheet. 100 x 100 cm. 2018

Painting by Sarah Gilbert of grey architectural modules floating in the air on a blue background and sanded floor

Full Force. Acrylic paint on wood, 84 x 59 cm. 2017

Ultimately this series reflects my interest in painting as a site of inquiry. I see each work as part of an immersive process of research where uncertainty, restraint, and persistence coexist. My thinking is also shaped by the experience of first person video games, particularly first person shooters, where space is entered directly and perception unfolds from within. The movement between levels, interiors, and environments introduces a form of escapism and a passage from one world to another that resonates with how I construct painted space. This sense of virtuality informs my approach to painting not as representation but as an environment that can be inhabited mentally. The paintings do not aim to conclude or explain but to hold open a space where multiple states and possible worlds can remain present at the same time.

Painting by Sarah Gilbert of architectural modules floating in the air on a blue background

101. Gloss and oil paint on aluminium sheet mounted on a wooden frame. 79 x 50 cm. 2016

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