Thom Rees
Thom Rees’ practice explores shape and form through process and material appropriated from domestic environments and their associated phenomena. The phenomenological investigation of ambiguity and a speculative approach to the observation of lived spaces create the framework of his practice.
THE ARTIST
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Untitled,
Cast Dyed Jesmonite,
2018-21
The work Untitled, black ceramic bars is a series of solid round ceramic bars in different lengths of black un-glazed stoneware clay. The bars are presented side by side standing vertically on end, on a bespoke wall mounted shelved MDF panel. The works focus on the viewer’s perception of shape, form, matter, size, weight and density.
THE PROCESS
Exploring themes of aesthetic experience, Lacanian mirror stage theory, eastern philosophy and existentialist theory within the work, I set to align the viewers focus on a wider exploration of grounding within the environment they situate themselves in, by offering the objects and situations as tools for self-reflection.
(Untitled)
Gestalt forms in black ceramic
Untitled, Cast dyed Jesmonite is a pigment-dyed cast Jesmonite standing hollow form. The sculpture draws from domestic architectural environments to examine collective memory and its origins. This work is evident of Rees’ exploration of the phenomenology of space and the malleability of architecture.
These works are presented as meditations, situated within an eastern philosophy and existential paradigm of quiet self-reflection and bodily resonance within the space around it.
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(Untitled)
Gestalt forms in black ceramic
Rees's work focusses on the visual interpretation of both the material and immaterial world of a social and physical space, situated within the boundaries of the conscious and subconscious. Through ambiguous objects and large-scale sculpture, structural and formalistic gestures, as well as situations, He invites the audience to experience the work through apperception and affect.