Elly Thomas : Kits and Building Blocks

11 Apr-3 Jun 2016

Overview

In Toys Roland Barthes describes how the ‘merest set of blocks’, provide a child with the tools to create imaginary worlds. For Barthes, it is the animistic engagement with material that characterises this play activity: ‘He creates forms which walk, which roll, he creates life, not property: objects now act by themselves, they are no longer an inert and complicated material in the palm of his hand.’ Taking Barthes’ analysis of toy building blocks as a cue to an animistic approach to sculpture, Elly Thomas will create a sprawling landscape that will form through the makeshift and improvisatory. Using a collection of sculptures as a kit of forms with which to improvise and experiment, the installation will forestall a sense of resolution. The gallery space will be treated as an experimental site as the installation becomes reworked and reconfigured over the course of the exhibition.