With Treatment, all manner of materials are utilized; manufactured objects are processed and salvaged elements are built into assemblages. Parts are modeled, then cast and recast, passing through uncomfortable – even brutal, states of change. In spite of this, there is playfulness that seeps out from Gill’s intricate hand-made forms. Iron casts of knees with open wounds encrusted with pewter maggots balance on a small battered wooden box. Treatment conflates the sculptural iconography of the crucifix with the image of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse and that of war trauma and healing. This is a reference to the maggot poultices used on First World War victims recovering from their injuries in ‘No Man’s Land’.
