The unusual scale of Spook Rock Road (Kasino-Kut) provides Blair Thurman with an opportunity to present large-scale pictorial installations that serve as a framework for a body of new sculptures and paintings.
The allusion to “casino” in the title of the exhibition is an indication of Thurman’s method, which always allows for chance in his compositions. His art is affiliated with the aesthetic of the found object, one of the foundations of modern art. But with him, it is also forms, structures and patterns, which we find transposed in his works. These found forms include, for example, automobile circuits, the frame of a chair, or a printed pattern… This does not mean that his art is “about” these found things; the world of the car, or of the game, are here a portal to the painting, they are shortcuts taken to determine a form. His point of departure can also be a play on words or a homonymy, as in the analogy between a chassis for painting and a car chassis, both of which are seen as supports for the painted surface.
His new three-dimensional works, made from boned buggies topped with a parasol, are more specifically reminiscent of junk sculpture (the creations of Ed Kienholz or Robert Rauschenberg, for example), while the large installations made of monochrome panels are a transposition of the art of “assemblage” into painting. The paintings are assembled as in a house of cards, and define an environment which can make one think of the surroundings of a racetrack. Their colors are inspired by the chromatic range of comic books from the 60s and 70s. Neon sculptures punctuate the course, reinforcing its urban dimension.
