i am s.o.s
SARAH GILLINGS MA
ARTIST * EDUCATOR * INCLUSIVE ARTS PRACTITIONER ACTIVIST * CONTEMPORARY MURAL ARTIST *
UPCOMING EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
I WORK IN COLLABORATION WITH THE COMMUNITY OR CLIENT IN ORDER TO TRANSFORM PERCEPTIONS AND SPACES
Sarah Gillings MA (aka S.O.S) is an award winning UK artist, inclusive practitioner and force for positive social change. She transforms unloved and new spaces into thought provoking focal points that the community can feel part of.
Her interventions invite the community to collaborate, and this is fundamental to S.o.S’s practice. Enabling conversations around issues to do with the/their environment or history is one of the outcomes of her approach, which encompasses many channels to invite meaningful collaboration and public engagement.
Key themes within S.O.S’s activism based artwork, include making statements about gender inequality through researched works such as ALICE AGAINST FGM and GENDERCARD.
Works such as her coastal ecology themed murals have been very successful in raising awareness to important issues such as the rewinding of Sussex’s Kelp Forests.
LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND MUSINGS
Capturing a love of nature and sharing the wonder of it with the world.
Presenting nature in remarkable ways...
Presenting nature in remarkable ways...
CRANBROOK IN BLOOM 2022
This is my fourth time being invited to Cranbrook part of Chelsea Fringe, the alternate garden festival. The whole high street is closed and local makers of food, drinks and everything crafty and country all gather to sell their wares...
ZUTOPIA
LITTLEHAMPTON INCLUSIVE MURAL SUMMER 2022
AWARD WINNING WORKSHOPS
Whether its a community day event or a corporate team building workshop, I have a range of solutions to suit your needs.
INCLUSIVE ARTS PRACTICE (IAP)
Policy changes are possible in large organisations and government though IAP. Creating social change starts with a good idea to solve an issue, then measuring impact, creating research projects, and collaboration all help bring about resolution. We can overcome issues of entrenched perceptions through IAP. Add to this the empathetic intuitive nature ofInclusive Arts Practitioners who combine the skills to work across these platforms we have a powerful solution! Practitioners see the world in an empathetic intuitive way, whilst being able to balance knowing when to facilitate and when to step back, when to collaborate, and when it’s appropriate to lead.
One of the key elements of IAP is that it allows us to find new ways of addressing old problems, conflict resolution and re creating our world in a more positive and inclusive way. Weve created the world, rightly or wrongly, with some successful ideas but also ideas which werent so good , terrible wrongs and injustices. Poeisis is understanding that since we have created BOTH the good and bad in the world, then we are capable of reimagining better ways going forward and REDESIGNING the world with diversity in mind. In this respect IAP has a realistic and subtly rose tinted view on the world and wants to make it a better place.
I’m a collaborator, but also an organiser of things and someone who makes things happen. As a practitioner, by specialising in street art methods I plough everything I learn from all aspects of my work, to help me develop innovative interventions for the Street Art charity I founded in 2017, U CAN Spray CIO.
Also Community consultation Workshops and bespoke intervention enquiries are always welcome, so please get in touch!
INTERVIEWS ON ITV AND MERIDIAN NEWS 2021
I like to tell a story but one which includes as many people as possible, because this enriches the outcome.
Including the public not only informs the project, but enriches the creative outcomes and sense of ownership of the artwork. Whether this be by making a part of, or giving an opinion. If the practice (of inclusion) is embedded in my processes wherever possible I can see a better vision it really helps me understand the project that Im undertaking with their visions, hopes and ideas included in some way during the process in the community where I will be working
Consulting in meaningful ways with the community enables me to include the many diverse perspectives into my work and consideration, and I love working in this way! Murals have the power to speak to people of all sorts to bring them together to have meaningful conversations and to include everyone in the process results in better artwork. Here the process is as important as the outcome!
Before the mural was painted
During the painting of the mural
S.o.S’s artworks and interventions can be divided into the following areas of expertise
PUBLIC ART
DEFINITION: COMMISSIONED, INCLUSIVE, PUBLIC, URBAN AND RURAL, STORYTELLING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING, EXPERIMENTAL.
VIEW GALLERY
STREET ART
DEFINITION: MY IDEAS, MY WAY, FEMINISM, UNSOLICITED, ACTIVISM, STORYTELLING, URBAN, THOUGHT-PROVOKING, EXPERIMENTAL, UNPAID.
VIEW GALLERY
ECOLOGY
DEFINITION: REPRESENTING ENDANGERED AND LOCAL SPECIES. RAISING AWARENESS TO CAUSES.
VIEW GALLERY
LIVE ART
DEFINITION: AUDIENCE GETS TO SEE THE PROCESS. DECOR & BACKDROPS AT FESTIVALS & EVENTS.
VIEW GALLERY
COMMISSIONS
DEFINITION: BESPOKE, PRIVATE COMMISSIONS FOR BUSINESSES, INTERIOR DESIGNERS, HOMES, GARDENS AND MORE.
VIEW GALLERY
HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFINITION: ART MEETS ACTIVISM. GENDER INEQUALITY, ECOLOGY, INCARCERATION, GUANTANAMO BAY.
VIEW GALLERY
AN ARTIST WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE
It’s not enough for me to simply make art. I want to make social change through art, and this has been the most rewarding part of my practice, which has developed into being a social entrepreneur.
To get feedback that my interventions have made a real difference to one person, makes me so proud. To have facilitated, and had positive feedback from hundreds of young people and scores of adults through my practice is a joy and honour to serve others.
PLEASE SEE A VIDEO ABOUT MY FIRST INTERVENTION AGAINST FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION BELOW AND IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE INFO CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW
A film about Alice Against FGM Intervention
