GEMMA DAVIS is a practicing artist + designer. Her practice combines the intimate possibility of drawing, interactive animation, and immersive textile installation. Inside Gemma’s installations is the pastel pink world of an imaginary girl gang; VIDE MAGMAS.

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“Flailing attempts to unpack my self in words on a page leave me more confused than when I started. Instead I retreat into a purposely constructed fictional world that deconstructs my identity into more manageable and palatable bites. Six heroes; a girl gang community of all my simultaneously conflicting narratives, that somehow continue to cohere enough each day for me to not break down into mental oblivion.

In the safety of my imagined world I flirt with my contradictions of character. I pit the individual against the collective, and vice versa, constantly ruminating, chewing. I’m teetering along the precipice between the real and the simulated, testing my own cognitive dissonance, trying to bend my mind into somehow seeing its own construction. Vide Magmas is my mythology of self.

Mythologies are the narratives we use to explain our existence, what is purpose, what is real, what is meaning, what is worth. With such weighted definition these narratives are undeniably powerful tools/weapons. Often at the centre of this is the Hero fighting for continued existence. Conflated with romantic ideas of the genius, of libertarian quests for justice and freedom, the paternal protector; the Hero is a complicated guy. Earth doesn’t really have the resources for everyone to be the Hero, but I want to be the Hero, who doesn’t? It’s this infuriating internal battle between philosophies of individualism and collectivism that underpin the world of Vide Magmas.

The Vide Magmas quest tussles with questions about the role of technology, community, justice and possession in my present, past and possible future.”