Thomas Chimes: The Body in Spirals
Locks Gallery is pleased to present The Body in Spirals focusing on the explorations of geometry, alchemy, physics, and metals within the career of Thomas Chimes. The exhibition will be on view November 7 through December 13, 2014 with a reception on Friday, November 7, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. While much of Chimes鈥檚 work is deeply indebted to literature, each body of work (his metal and plexi box constructions, drawings, and later white paintings) maintained structured systems that dictated the composition鈥攁 process-based manifestation of the classicist and symbolist ideals in his work.
In Exploits & Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, 鈥楶ataphysician by Alfred Jarry (a seminal book to Chimes and his artistic practice), the narrator states, 鈥淔or we are both of the opinion that if one can measure what one is talking about and can express it in numbers, which constitute the sole reality, then one has some knowledge of one鈥檚 subject.鈥� This bold statement would become the subject of multiple late white paintings, and represents Chimes鈥檚 strong ideological approach to manifesting Jarry鈥檚 鈥楶ataphysics within the visual arts.
In the artist鈥檚 own exploration of what we believe, perceive, and feel he relied heavily on the quantifiable boundaries of the universe in astronomy, the body in anatomy and proportion systems, and composition through Fibonnaci鈥檚 Golden Spiral and classical math formulas. Beyond literature and the arts, Chimes would also take interest in physicists and mathematicians that fused spirituality, philosophy and hard science.
In these works is a world rich in symbolism: metals are personified (Iron as Mars, God of War and Silver as Hecate, Goddess of the Moon); circles can signify shields, mandalas, clocks, compasses, sundials, and the earth; letters and points in abstract constellations are determined by the Golden Section and Jarry鈥檚 own notions of mathematical formulas; and the body becomes a world of proportions, formulas, and erotic riddles. Chimes deliberately revealed and concealed information through the layers of metal, the intersections of lines and equations, and the skins of white paint in his later work.
This exhibition brings together exemplary works spanning the career of Chimes including drawings and white paintings that have never been exhibited and little-seen metal and plexi box constructions.
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Locks Gallery is pleased to present The Body in Spirals focusing on the explorations of geometry, alchemy, physics, and metals within the career of Thomas Chimes. The exhibition will be on view November 7 through December 13, 2014 with a reception on Friday, November 7, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. While much of Chimes鈥檚 work is deeply indebted to literature, each body of work (his metal and plexi box constructions, drawings, and later white paintings) maintained structured systems that dictated the composition鈥攁 process-based manifestation of the classicist and symbolist ideals in his work.
In Exploits & Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, 鈥楶ataphysician by Alfred Jarry (a seminal book to Chimes and his artistic practice), the narrator states, 鈥淔or we are both of the opinion that if one can measure what one is talking about and can express it in numbers, which constitute the sole reality, then one has some knowledge of one鈥檚 subject.鈥� This bold statement would become the subject of multiple late white paintings, and represents Chimes鈥檚 strong ideological approach to manifesting Jarry鈥檚 鈥楶ataphysics within the visual arts.
In the artist鈥檚 own exploration of what we believe, perceive, and feel he relied heavily on the quantifiable boundaries of the universe in astronomy, the body in anatomy and proportion systems, and composition through Fibonnaci鈥檚 Golden Spiral and classical math formulas. Beyond literature and the arts, Chimes would also take interest in physicists and mathematicians that fused spirituality, philosophy and hard science.
In these works is a world rich in symbolism: metals are personified (Iron as Mars, God of War and Silver as Hecate, Goddess of the Moon); circles can signify shields, mandalas, clocks, compasses, sundials, and the earth; letters and points in abstract constellations are determined by the Golden Section and Jarry鈥檚 own notions of mathematical formulas; and the body becomes a world of proportions, formulas, and erotic riddles. Chimes deliberately revealed and concealed information through the layers of metal, the intersections of lines and equations, and the skins of white paint in his later work.
This exhibition brings together exemplary works spanning the career of Chimes including drawings and white paintings that have never been exhibited and little-seen metal and plexi box constructions.
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