ART CITIES:Los Angeles-Chiffon Thomas

Like many artist’s, Chiffon Thomas practice is in constant flux and forever evolving. Currently his work investigates how to portray an impossible body. Chiffon Thomas uses the body as subject to visually represent concepts relating to existence, emotionality, vulnerability, conflict and mortality. He is constantly thinking about the ways in which subcultures are created in a post colonial world and giving insight on the interiority of an individual and their family structures”.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kohn Gallery Archive

Chiffon Thomas’ practice is an interdisciplinary one, ranging across hand embroidered mixed media painting, collage, drawing, and sculpture. Identifying as a non-binary queer person of color, his powerful figurative assemblages  examine the difficulties faced by defining one’s identity in contemporary society. As an amalgamation of ideas about capitalism in relation to Christianity, in his solo exhibition “Antithesis”, Chiffon Thomas provides an indication of how social constructs are being corrupted. Inspired by Colonial design, Thomas uses deconstructed materials from a New England demolition site to build an array of sculptures ranging in size along with a selection of works on paper. The silicon bodies in these sculptures wear the parts of building materials – deconstructed and reconstructed several times from cement, foam, rigid plastic and more. Thomas builds housing units for the sculptural body using readymade materials, finding interior parts to repurpose that add an interpretation of function. Thomas states, “I destroy and then I reconfigure”. Through contorted figures and fractured compositions that float seamlessly between historical and contemporary styles and references, Thomas presents a process of transition from dysmorphia to metamorphosis. As the artist states, ”through fracturing faces, I try to represent how individuals compartmentalize trauma and sometimes create multiple identities in order to heal. Sometimes this is how dissociative identity disorders develop. It’s also emblematic for when people of color have to color-switch. You often have to split into multiple identities and veil who you most comfortably are”. Reminiscent of the diverse, mixed media practices exhibited by Robert Rauschenberg, David Hammons, Louise Bourgeois, and Louise Nevelson, Thomas’ own application of materiality becomes a language for translating cultural references and personal experiences. Raised with a strong religious upbringing, Thomas’ work often grapples with conflicting beliefs, values, and desires, primarily using tactile methods of sculpture as an expressive, visual language that interprets personal feelings of nostalgia, longing to belong, and affirmations of self-identity. Past photographs and images of the self are deconstructed into sketches and then built back up with rebar wire, plastic urethane, nails, screws, and thread. For the exhibition Thomas denotes how opposing objects or bodies can exist within a single environment or space, creating a utopia of their own design. The artist bonds binary qualities together, crafting fluid subjects who evade simple categories… modeling the autonomy they seek. Thomas’ usage of multimedia allows them to examine issues of race, gender, and sexuality. In particular, photography and stitching are combined as a way to preserve and repair history.

Photo: Chiffon Thomas, Untitled, 2021, Foam, wooden crate, silicone, charcoal dust, embroidery floss, wire, windows, cement, 88 x 43 x 43 inches, © Chiffon Thomas, Courtesy the artist and Kohn Gallery

Info: Kohn Gallery, 1227 North Highland Ave, Los Angeles, Duration: 9/4-21/5/2021, Days & Hours: By appointment only (mail email Karys Judd at karys@kohngallery.com), www.kohngallery.com