Andrew Thomas

Transformer1972

 

SIMULACRUM
Show Window Exhibition #9:

 

18th of June 2021 - 23rd of July 2021
Monday through Friday, 10 AM - 5 PM

 

including 48h Festival

Friday 18th of June 7 pm - Sunday 20th of June 7 pm

Emser Str. 124 on the corner of Ilsestr.

 

The SIMULACRUM exhibition cycle continues with images in our show windows looking out onto the street. As the WerkStadt is not yet able to do exhibitions inside the project space that are open to the public due to COVID-19, fittingly the artworks will look out into the surrounding neighborhood.

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"When referencing Air I immediately identify the arcane elemental symbolism of alchemy, air, fire, water and earth. The triangle dissected by a horizontal bar represents air within the elemental symbols employed to evoke the alchemist’s esoteric ritualistic practice. This desire to facilitate a change of state the quest for transformation identifies the core theme for this body of work.

Jungian psychology states alchemy is a personal journey of transformation and an instinctive impulse for growth. Fairy tales are considered the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious providing a potent departure point for oneiric travel.
In Grimm's Fairy Tale No. 174: The Owl, oxygen feeds the flames engulfing the barn sheltering the giant owl, transforming all to ash. Unpacking this fairytale through a queer lens, we find control, violence motivated by fear of the other.
Jungian psychology also offers us archetypes including The Fool or Jester, the shape shifting trickster, serves as a transformer and culture hero, morally ambiguous, who creates order out of chaos by invoking change. One of the Major Arcana cards in the tarot deck and a consistent presence in folklore and mythology. Till Eulenspiegel is one such incarnation often depicted with an owl and mirror, this imagery has been assimilated into my personal iconography.

The overriding theme is that of transformation, whether scientific, social, physiological, physical or magical. Through the process of becoming originals are created resulting in a Simulacra."                              Andrew Thomas

 

 

 

*The WerkStadt as an art project space is partially funded (structural costs) in 2020-2021 by the Berlin Senate for Culture & Europe.