MARCIA THOMPSON
B.L.O.C.O.S
Curated by Gabriela Davies
At the base of every language, there is grammar. The formation of each word depends on a series of meanings and associations which enables it to be understood as a whole. However, in the beginning of the learning process we acknowledge the words in a divided and dissected way, as each letter by itself. Letters, therefore, are forms that individualise themselves from words so they can assemble with others freely.
Based upon the first writings of her children, Marcia created a series of drawings on ruled paper that follows the repetitive and optimistic strokes of the children who do not yet understand the function of the lines. Each letter is traced in a different manner and in different sizes, extrapolating the lines and giving the impression that the matter is independent from the surface that comprises it, in this case, oil on pastel.
The letters gain autonomy when following their own route, and are eventually translated into oil paint matter. Canvases drenched in distinct hues of reds are framed in acrylic boxes and placed in a sequence so they echo the letters on the ruled paper. each box holds its own story, keeping within itself materials derived from the language of painting: canvas, oil paint and frame, which separates the pictorial from the real world. There is an order that keeps the elements together which is defied by matter's own nature.
The form creates this order. Marcia Thompson uses simple forms enabling easy comprehension. It is the lines of the ruled paper or horizons, the circle of the letters or jumbled fabric, and also the square of the acrylic boxes, paper pads or canvases. The order, therefore, is linked to the non-complexity, to the primary concept of the circles and squares, to the abc of a discreet geometry. The very colours of the works also conform to these primary parameters of colour charts used by artists: red, blue, yellow.
The rupture of the order is caused by the material itself.To confine the paint inside a box simulates its behaviour inside the tube which keeps it humid, functional, alive. The paint - the colour - is organic. It continues to paint,now in an autonomous, unique and uncontrollable way, the impeccably crystalline walls of the acrylic boxes as a form of rebellion. The colour, at last, stains the acrylic glass adding life to the transparency, to the form.
Even the colour withdraw from its primary standards. The red isn't unique but a variety of hues, also dismantling the elementary and compartmentalised condition of the colour codes. Additionally, the heavy canvas of blue paint reflects the ambient light, brightening parts that contrast with the shadows cast by the volume of the matter. The blue existent on the canvas isn't just one. The wave of the marked brush, once more, trespass the limits of the chassis, taking possession of almost all its barriers and creating eventually another encounter between the order and its interference.
Gabriela Davies, 2017