ROSIE MCGINN

Rosie McGinn is fascinated with the human search for euphoria. Previously exploring this through British sport successes such as Torvill and Dean’s ‘Bolero’ or Footballer Paul Gascoigne (Gazza), McGinn has recently turned to the human obsession with flight. In her recent solo exhibition Biggus Icarus, the artist produced the soft-sculpture piece Biggus Icarus depicting Felix Baumgartner’s 2012 free fall from the stratosphere, as well as series of watercolour studies exploring ‘A history of human flight’.

Joining us at the project in October 2021, McGinn continued her exploration into flight through space travel, particularly looking at the overview effect. Coined by space philosopher Frank White in 1987, the overview effect refers to the shift in astronauts' understanding of existence when seeing earth from space for the first time. What would it be like to see Earth from a distance? Interested in the suggestion that poets and artists should have been sent to space instead of scientists, McGinn’s Watercolour study Lament to the Moon (2021), the projects eponym, recounts the moment Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders saw the moon block out the stars. Furthering her space investigation McGinn began looking into various Astronaut gloves, producing a series of watercolour studies alongside soft sculpture hand-shelves.

Rosie McGinn graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2018. Recent solo shows include: Biggus Icarus, Lewisham Arthouse, London, 2021; OBLIVION, PALFREY, London, 2021; SNOB, Recent Activity, Birmingham, 2019; GET IN THERE [with OOF Magazine] Tate Exchange, London, 2019; The Boléro, Art Lacuna, London, 2019; 3 for 1, Picnic Gallery, London, 2018.