Theo Simpson The Land of the Day Before 23.01–05.03.17
Theo Simpson, The Land of the Day Before
23.01–05.03.17
Simpson’s collective works reflect on mythical themes relating to landscape and industrial heritage, probing the instability of the post-industrial landscape and its cultural and physical borders. Through the examination of materials, ruins, objects and experiences encountered and created, this practice confronts the diverse language of visual material from a variety of sources and points in time. The inherent power of this material to mould history, distort memories, and to create and manipulate meaning is explored, acting as a starting point for new thinking and possibilities.
The visual syntax of source material informs the method in which his photographic and structural works are re-imagined and presented within the complex and scarred topography of the post-industrial stage. Simpson uses structures to demonstrate the physical properties of the metals they are shaped from and the processes implicit in their manufacture and functionality. The structural form invites a holistic re-examination and re-presentation of their repetitive surfaces, materiality, and the landscapes they speculate upon, adopting an alternative language of tectonics and architecture; man’s inclination to build and to destroy.
This meticulously presented collection of visual material, objects, symbols and structural works are brought together in unlikely combinations, forming a transitory fixing where a potential dialogue can begin.