STATEMENT
Deception is the only essential skill of the artist: a manipulation achieved by selectively revealing and concealing. Drywall hides pipes, ducting, and wiring which do essential work for us. Wood, paint, and a well placed vent conceal consumer electronics that perform for us daily but are seldom considered for their sound and breath. My work questions our relationship to the unseen side of built environments by exposing the invisible, whether simply out of view or too common to notice. Wood poses as plastic, plastic as paper, cardboard as clay.
Our engagement with objects puts us in touch with materials; materials provide both accurate and misleading evidence as to the story of things. My work is full of impersonators, objects performing as others. Hand painted wood mimics a manufactured device. Plastic bearings play at being furniture. These pieces are amalgamations: old, new, found, fabricated, discovered, lost, abandoned, rescued, irrelevant, essential. The work asks how we use, recognize, connect, and become attached to things.
BIO
I hold an MFA from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a BFA in Sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design. I have worked as both an educator and studio manager at several universities and arts organizations.
CONTACT
eliz.thorp@gmail.com