BUFFET (Artefact) (2022-23)
- live performance with roast pork, apricot jam, and pickled cabbage for sandwiches.
- hand dyed fabric
Artefact
- Woven banner into live performance (Cavan art Festival 2023)
Artefact (Performance)
Artefact is about remnants and transformation. Drawn to the properties of raw natural materials present in geological formations, the performance takes a banner and burns it in an act of ritual sacrifice. The banner (The Lay of The Land, Array Collective 2023, Cavan Arts Centre) , an object made from the remnants of previous works, is thrown in the fire with the artist's hair.
Preparing the ritual. Prior to Artefact, the artist sits in the gallery in the light of a single candle and shaves their head, an act of cleansing removal of self, an anonymising, gilding their face with gold leaf they reference the use of gold leaf in Joseph Beuys ‘How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare’ (1965) Gold has been a recurring theme in Thomas’s performance work, interesting in the natural material both as a unit of value, and as an aspirational element denoting class. In ancient traditions gold leaf symbolised the highest state of human consciousness, with gold leaf being used as an alchemical symbol for transformation and spirituality.
Standing in the field the artist sets fire to the banner watching over it whilst it burns. Adding the charred remains with the hair sealing the vessel. What is now created is this artefact, a talisman of the performance. Similar to Beuys practice, by reinstalling artefact this object joins the tradition of ‘social sculpture’ referencing the enduring landscape and environmental and ecological persistence.
Artefact
Dig,
Excavate,
Unravel,
Peel,
Our hands in the soil, our feet sinking in the dirt, our hands weaving, our hands telling stories.
This banner represents time, thinking about the layers of history that overlay one on top of the other sandwiching time between its layers. Memory compacting against the earth preserving the stories of the land.
This banner was created in Belfast as part of Belfast International Festival of Performance Art in 2023 during a performance called ‘Buffet’ it was the beginning of the creation of an artefact inspired by a visit to the Black Pig’s Dyke. Woven from fabric, fragments of past performances the banner represents ongoing research on how monuments conceive time.
Made from three different materials; turmeric dyed linen (Stone Soup 2022 at Catalyst Arts) denim (‘Workwear’ 2018 at Framewerk) and a calico dyed with red iron ore the banner will hang in the gallery till May where it will be sacrificed as part of a performance event.
