Archive 2008-09
Rachel Thorlby
- Venue: Fine Art Lecture Theatre
- Start: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:00:00 GMT
- End: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:00:00 GMT
A Sculptor based in London, Thorlby explores the materiality of sculpture as a way of highlighting the artificial nature of painting, creating confusion between two and three dimensions.
“I work with the genres of portrait and landscape making reference to moments in the history of painting in my sculptures. I am drawn to the painted portrait, the act of ‘meeting’ the image of a subject, and the uncanny effect of time being condensed through the painted surface. I work with reproductions of old master paintings culling elements, and then splicing them together to subvert the original image. Disrupting the power and beauty of the original function of these portraits becomes an act of reinvention, creating something alien out the familiarity of the image of a forgotten entity. The work explores the materiality of sculpture as a way of highlighting the artificial nature of painting, creating confusion between two and three dimensions. These moments from the past are revisited with the use of impoverished materials, I’m interested in the disparity between these insufficient forms and surfaces and the faded magnificence of images past. The landscape work explores our relationship to a sense of place. I’m interested in how the landscape is perceived and remembered, landscape viewed as an image, a series of depictions and views. What is the contemporary relevance of the romantic and the pastoral? By trying to picture the idyllic I’m asking questions about what such a place looks like, and to what extent these historical depictions shape our view today. As a sculptor I am drawn to the idea of making an object out of an image, giving an edge or an outline to a world that in essence cannot be contained; it is in this way that I see landscape paintings as objects and am intrigued by the leap of faith that we as viewers make in entering the picture plane.”