Twentieth Gallery is pleased to present THE VIGA SERIES, new works by Tom Price.

Tom Price aims to create artworks and immersive experiences that connect with people on multiple levels. Strong conceptual foundations underpin the development of each artwork, stemming from his interests in the human condition and the physical world around us.

While the underlying concepts are critical in informing how his artworks are made, it is important to Tom that his sculptures are able to communicate on an immediate level without the need to delve deeper into the reasons behind their creation.

Materials play a fundamental role in augmenting the narrative content of his work, creating a more direct connection between form and thought. Tom often uses chance as a tool to encourage unpredictable outcomes from unconventional and industrial materials. He sees himself as working in collaboration with materials and phenomena to create artworks that are a product of mutual consent. Employing chance in this way allows him to transcend the limits of his own imagination.

Drawing on a background in design, Tom frequently explores notions of function and investigates ways in which the perception of an artwork can change when used as a place to sit or play, challenging traditional ideas of what a sculpture should or could be.

Although I predominantly work with man made or synthetic materials, I have always had a fascination with nature and natural phenomena. A lot of my conceptual and formal inspiration comes from observations of the natural world and our place within it – how we draw from it, coexist with it, and the impact we will have on it.

The Viga Series, in its appearance, marks a slight departure from much of the work I have done to date. The use of pre-existing natural materials in the form of the ancient wooden ceiling joists is new for me. Although formally distinct from previous works, conceptually it is a continuation of my reflections on us as a species and our place in the world.

In another sense the beams can be considered objets trouvés – similar in some ways to the store-bought plastic products I used in the Meltdown Series at the start of my career. The most engaging aspect of the beams – and the reason I was drawn to working with them – is the amount of character and history they possess and exhibit. The notches carved to accommodate other beams; the old twisted nails; the splashes of paint; the insect boreholes and worn-down ends, all hint at a rich history of utilitarian function and the many lives lived beneath them. They are a record of human construction from a time before plastics were invented, when everything would have been built and carved by hand. Now stripped from their place and deprived of their raison d’être, they have become odd artefacts, disassociated from their original context and historical purpose.

I imagined a future where these beams might reemerge – a time where our present era would be ancient history and all the material innovations of our time had become assimilated with and indistinguishable from nature. A flattening of human history into a single era – the Anthropocene – where synthetic minerals and inorganic deposits grow in and on natural materials. The Viga sculptures are an amalgam of the natural and the manmade, their totemic appearance dispassionately assessing the legacy of the human epoch.