Years ago, when Marc first met Gillie at a modelling set in Hong Kong, a little voice inside his head told him she was “the jackpot“. He always dreamt of meeting a “really hot, compassionate artist“, and Gillie had ticked all his boxes. Gillie had thought Marc were a gay hairdresser; with his long tresses, ripped jeans and broken shoes. They were also engaged to different people at that time.
Then, they started talking.
“We stayed up all night just talking. We talked about art, we talked about our life, our travel and basically everything – we have so much in common and we get on so well. It’s just unbelievable and on that night itself I was thinking to myself that he is my soul mate, and I think Marc felt the same way too.” – Gillie
Little did they know, 7 days later, they exchanged their marriage vows at the foot of Mount Everest.
20 years on, Gillie and Marc remain happily married with kids, and continue to fulfil their lifelong passions of creating art. The duo are internationally recognised and have been commissioned by a gamut of corporations including Hilton (Singapore), McDonald’s (Singapore), the Australian zoos and more.
The recurring motif in their sculptures is a dog and rabbit, affectionately known as ‘dogman’ and ‘rabbitgirl’. Overwhelmingly inspired by the sculptures in Egypt on a trip with their children, Gillie and Marc decided to appropriate “the animal’s head and place it on human body to give the human the qualities of that animal. Such as strength, character, power and more.” The unlikely match of a dog and rabbit is also a representation of the couple’s religious backgrounds – Gillie is Catholic and Marc is Jewish.
Social commentary is often present in their artworks. In Paparazzi Dogs (2013), commissioned by Melbourne’s Federation Square, viewers started to take pictures with the sculpture. Which interestingly, would turn them into paparazzi themselves, and therefore demonstrate the pack mentality that most paparazzi posses.
Popspoken asked the successful duo what they would do with all the money in the world. Their response was one without frills: “To begin with, we don’t really care about money. What we do care very much is our family.” Together with their second love, travel, Gillie and Marc hope to use their money to bring their kids an out-of-the-world trips around the world, to “encourage them to be better humans”. With excess cash, they would then use it “support wild life and preserve endangered species”, as they are in love with the natural world.
The surreal, fragmented quality present in their works stems from an admiration of artists such as Salavador Dali and Picasso.
“I think Dali was insane but I like his insane mind and I love his works more than anything else. It’s so inspiring and captivating.” – Marc
Gillie & Marc’s exploration of the human psyche and its conflict with the natural world can be found at Ode to Art.Â
252 North Bridge Road
#01- 36E/F Raffles City Shopping Centre, S179103
T: +65 6250 1901 F: +65 6250 5354
W: www.odetoart.com     Â
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/odetoart.gallery
