☰ Jonathan Thomson Art

KATA TJUTA MAQUETTE

In 2022 I visited Uluru /Kata Tjuta in Central Australia and it was a revelation to me. The forms of these landscapes speak to the geological forces of folding that helped to create them over millions of years but they are also imbued with a sense of the humanity of the custodians of this land who have treasured it and everything that it represents for millennia.

These maquettes in papier mache combine the inorganic forms of mountains with references to the human form.

Lost Seduced Abandoned

This series of super-realist works use cotton, latex and acrylic to create sculptural versions of women's underwear, depicted as if they have only just been discarded, whether dropped, thrown or kicked.

These works are powerfully erotic fetish objects that resonate with men and women alike. They are charged with meaning, significance and potential. They present art as sex objects and sex as art objects.

When we encounter these trompe l'oeil sculptures, seemingly discarded at random on the floor, we are instantly enmeshed in their narrative potential. What's their back story? What does their placement suggest to us? Are they Lost? Seduced? Abandoned?

The eroticism of knickers / panties / briefs imbues these items of dress with a sexual life and history of their own, detached from the bodies they are meant to adorn. When they are presented as sculpture they become signifiers of female bodies and women's lives and address many of the issues and contradictions of the nude in art without actually depicting a naked body.

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