Issue 7_Focus from the AOP_July 2026_FINAL - Flipbook - Page 19
GEMMA MCNAUGHTON
SILVER
—
“My Silver winner was more
conceptual in its approach but I liked
the feeling it created of detachment
and human anxiety that can exist in
a place. I think it tapped into
universal feelings that we come to
feel towards places, especially in our
adolescence. “
Greg Funnell
—
Against the Grain
My practice is a phenomenological
investigation into the body’s
relationship with the built
environment, specifically Scotland’s
urban landscapes. Drawing on
Juhani Pallasmaa’s critique of ocularcentrism, I restore a haptic depth to
the image through staged
choreography. By placing models in
sculptural poses that disrupt
functional perceptions of space, I
explore the human form as it
inhabits my own everyday
environment in Leith.
This practice functions as a
resistance against the disciplinary
structures that dictate how we move
and exist in space. By prioritising a
haptic, physical dialogue with
architecture, I reconnect the viewer
to the sensory necessity of physical
agency. The result is a reclamation
of the city, turning the familiar into a
site of embodied experience. —
