In his first solo U.S. exhibition, London-based artist Tom Price debuts a new body of work at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on June 20. Presence and Absence: New Works by Tom Price features hollow bodies of coal, coal voids and large columns of internally-fractured resin exploring the dependent and opposing notions of presence and absence.
I spent time with Price while he was installing the exhibition in the Project Space in the Bloch Building. There are three distinct areas of work: the human forms made of coal, the geometric Carbon Voids and resin pieces. We talked about the resin pieces first. These pieces are significant, the smallest weighing about 400 pounds and others are even heavier. The installation crew at the Nelson had their hands full in moving the pieces in place. The pieces are not perfect. There are voids and fractures that capture light and Price uses tar to fill in some of the voids. The contrasts between natural coal and synthetic resin are as significant as the voids and spaces that define Price’s forms. The artist said he hopes visitors will engage with these new works on several different levels.
“I work through an evolution,” he says. “I investigate materials and accept the large element of chance. With the resin, there’s interplay of light and the refractive nature. Depending on how light sources are angled at the pieces, there are reds, magentas and yellows. It’s about exploiting the natural process. To a point, I get to relinquish some of the responsibility within this discovery. I give up authorship to chance. In many ways and in varying degrees, chance is part of this collaborative process and I become more of a curator.” In the hall before the Project Space, find some of his “sketches” with the various materials.
Price is one of the most honest artists I have ever met. He is not one to shy away from stories about his trials and errors. “Sometimes the spectacular failures are those that allow me to learn. I discover new things. I know that I start at a point of relative ignorance. Through experimentation, I become an expert with some aspects.”
Price hopes people engage with his work because it’s first and foremost interesting. “Then the viewer can delve deeper into their own reactions.” The two human forms are made of coal. It’s one of the purest sources of carbon, a fundamental building block of all living organisms. Coal is the principle source of electric energy throughout the world today, bringing power to sustain and support new life, while also significantly contributing to the environmental pollution that is currently threatening our existence. It is an incredibly potent material both in terms of its effectiveness as a source of energy, and also what it represents.
The two models are male and female, reminiscent of the remains of those from Pompeii. By the 1st century AD, Pompeii was one of a number of towns located near the base of the volcano, Mount Vesuvius. Many of Pompeii’s neighboring communities, most famously Herculaneum, also suffered damage or destruction during the 79 eruption. The remains look like plaster casts. Price’s work is strikingly similar. “I was partly influenced,” he says. “There is something fascinating and emotive in these forms.”
The two models are dancers, Price says. He liked their looks. First, the woman was soft-spoken and slightly frail looking and the man has lean muscles. “They looked right together. When I first cast the heads, I realized there was a greater weight. I became emotional. When the entire forms were put together, it was moving. I realized with the eyes closed, there is isolation, an individual experience even as they are placed together.”
Along with the resin pieces and coal forms, there are geometric pieces. “Tom’s new works investigate the seemingly conflicting states of being: presence and absence,” says Catherine Futter, The Helen Jane and R. Hugh “Pat” Uhlmann Senior Curator, Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts. “Tom begins not with an artwork in mind, but with an investigation of his materials, oftentimes using them in ways they were not intended to be used.” He visited Kansas City last October Futter visited Price in March. “It’s always exciting to see a new body of work. I come see the emotion and reflectivity. Tom’s works fit here. These works are unique in that they represent both presence and absence at the same time.”
So as visitors come to view the works, Price finds it important that the viewer is able to engage with the works initially on a superficial level, responding solely to the aesthetic qualities of the forms, composition and materials. “But it is equally important that they offer the possibility of further insight into the process, meaning and concept so that the experience can be both aesthetically and intellectually enriching,” he says.
Born in London in 1973, Price continues to live and work in the capital. Drawing on his training in both sculpture and design, his practice regularly delves into the grey areas between the two disciplines. Much of the work Price produces seeks to explore the untapped potential of familiar materials, encouraging them to behave in unfamiliar ways. This often requires developing machinery and tools that are capable of subverting conventional industrial manufacturing techniques, introducing a dose of entropy into what are typically very controlled processes. Chance is an essential element in this creative process, and one that Price relies on to transcend the limits of imagination.
Since graduating from London’s Royal College of Art, Price has established an international career as an artist and designer with works in major collections and museums worldwide, including acquisitions by San Francisco MOMA, Denver Art Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the MKG Hamburg, and Amore Pacific Museum of Art in Seoul. He has also completed several large-scale sculptural commissions for public and private spaces.
Presence and Absence: New Works by Tom Price runs through Jan. 4, 2015.
