Present 2 2004

Thomas researches Henri Bergson on perception and duration. By distributing elements into actual and time and space the work delays the readings of the work, enabling disparate and differing readings to be engaged with over the time of viewing. It extends the pictorial traditions of colour surface scale into real space thus the work's readings are not immediately recoverable, enabling content to be recovered over time and space. The extension of painting pictorialising space is the research background on which this work is based.

This work was selected by the curator Dr Kyle Jenkins, an abstractionist himself, as part of the exhibition series Constructed Colour, an evolution of the curator's overall aim to provide an ongoing framework for the presentation of, and the discussion on the continued importance of an art that employs colour in a constructional sense, or as a heavily reduced element in itself, or as a concept altogether intrinsic to an artwork. Through the work produced for the exhibition Constructed Colour 4 by selected key Australian and international artists: Jenkins, Thomas and Daniel Gottin, Pam Aitken, Manya Ginori, Luke Adams, Justin Andrews and Simon Morris it was demonstrated that the development of a conceptual critique relates to a range of practical engagements. The project generated a widening of discussion around the interdependence of art and architectural methodologies.

Thomas and Jenkins's work extends the basic elements of painting in time and space through wall and building constructions which reconciles the concrete world of matter and the constructed world of language. Thomas' work applied the principles of a non-objective pictorial tradition into actual space and time. The work was exhibited in Artspace, one of the leading venues in Australia and supported by NSW Ministry of the Arts and the Australia Council. A fully illustrated catalogue with essay by curator and director accompanied the exhibition.