Work Statement for "Pillow Book" by Terri Thomas (written for the artist to be published on her website and with displayed work)
Pillow Book: Terri Thomas
Thomas’ recent body of work is based on her concern with how our culture is sexually informed and how information about sex is passed on to future generations. In Pillow Book as Inheritance Thomas explores these ideas in a walk-through “pillow book”, an ornate parody created with large assemblage paper pages of pornography-referenced/self-portrait hybrid oil paintings ornamented with Swarovski crystal encrusted sculptures and blown glass insects and flowers.
Pillow books (“notes of the pillow”) are known to vary in form, but Thomas' work references them as both journals of observations, poetry and musings, and as the Japanese Shunga. The Shunga is a folded- paper manual of illustrated sexual advice tucked into the sleeve of a young bride passed down from her mother. Shunga, literally means "Images of Spring"- a euphemism for sex. In Thomas’ research on pillow books, she was impressed with how Japanese “notes of the pillow” acted as both a communication tool and as sacred lessons in the ways of sex and intimacy.
As an identical twin growing up to over-sexualized portrayals of doubles in the media, and having been initially educated on the ways of sex through poorly hidden pornographic magazines, Thomas has long been interested in how sex and intimacy are learned and portrayed. In “Pillow Book as Inheritance,” Thomas creates the imaginary pillow book that was unwittingly passed down to her. She weaves together both an honest and cynical interpretation of a 'manual for lovers'. Each narrative contains double-entendre leaving the beneficiary unsure if the decorative pages of advice are empowering or subjugating, sincere or satirical, obscured or spectacle.
Thomas pushes the boundaries of high and low art as she mischievously delves into notions of sexual identity convoluted by ludicrous notions of class and beauty created by a commercially driven culture. Thomas chooses objects that contain a dual language. What conveys cliché, kitsch, craft, pun, ornamentation, ridicule and bad taste, also carries connotations of privilege, femininity, beauty, frivolity, prevalence, illusion and accessibility.
With titles such as "Daughters of Intemperance," "Field Play," and "Look of Love, " the work's double narrative,contains an ambiguity within the way the symbolic plants, animals and identical female exemplars are depicted and move in and out of a perceived power.
Metaphorical “images of spring” come to life in works including insects, buds and blossoms, and sculptures of bobcats, mountain lions and peacocks (The Beautiful Cocks and Pussies). A large Swarovski crystal encrusted Mountain Lion titled "Married to a Poem" aggressively pursues the only male depiction within the installation, a giant Albino Peacock titled "Given Away by a Novel" a reference to a love poem by John Keats. (Actual Keats Quote 1819: Married to a Poem and Given away by a Novel) These natural forms act as objects of devotion while simultaneously representing a form of satire exploring the motivations and contradictions of physical and material desire.
The theme of desire is constant in Thomas' paintings as well. Her “porn-traits” – oil painted hybrids of self-portraiture and pornographic imagery - refer to the pervasive media-influence, body commodity and the narcissistic aspects of desire. Throughout “Pillow Book As Inheritance,” replicated forms and images allude to cultural fascinations with facsimile, verisimilitude, mimicry and erotic simulacra.
Thomas’ pillow book elaborates on the visual language of euphemism, kitsch and pun to demonstrate our societal vernacular to the point of vacuousness, appealing to our insatiable desires, bombarding the viewer with shine, craft and bling. Performing desire and gender, examining power relations, strategies of beauty, with a sense of humor, prerogative and non-compliance, Thomas’ book of advice mocks and tutors her viewers on the ways of today's eroticism. Her work is both illuminating and idealistic through absurdity, paradox and satire.
Pillow Book: Terri Thomas
Thomas’ recent body of work is based on her concern with how our culture is sexually informed and how information about sex is passed on to future generations. In Pillow Book as Inheritance Thomas explores these ideas in a walk-through “pillow book”, an ornate parody created with large assemblage paper pages of pornography-referenced/self-portrait hybrid oil paintings ornamented with Swarovski crystal encrusted sculptures and blown glass insects and flowers.
Pillow books (“notes of the pillow”) are known to vary in form, but Thomas' work references them as both journals of observations, poetry and musings, and as the Japanese Shunga. The Shunga is a folded- paper manual of illustrated sexual advice tucked into the sleeve of a young bride passed down from her mother. Shunga, literally means "Images of Spring"- a euphemism for sex. In Thomas’ research on pillow books, she was impressed with how Japanese “notes of the pillow” acted as both a communication tool and as sacred lessons in the ways of sex and intimacy.
As an identical twin growing up to over-sexualized portrayals of doubles in the media, and having been initially educated on the ways of sex through poorly hidden pornographic magazines, Thomas has long been interested in how sex and intimacy are learned and portrayed. In “Pillow Book as Inheritance,” Thomas creates the imaginary pillow book that was unwittingly passed down to her. She weaves together both an honest and cynical interpretation of a 'manual for lovers'. Each narrative contains double-entendre leaving the beneficiary unsure if the decorative pages of advice are empowering or subjugating, sincere or satirical, obscured or spectacle.
Thomas pushes the boundaries of high and low art as she mischievously delves into notions of sexual identity convoluted by ludicrous notions of class and beauty created by a commercially driven culture. Thomas chooses objects that contain a dual language. What conveys cliché, kitsch, craft, pun, ornamentation, ridicule and bad taste, also carries connotations of privilege, femininity, beauty, frivolity, prevalence, illusion and accessibility.
With titles such as "Daughters of Intemperance," "Field Play," and "Look of Love, " the work's double narrative,contains an ambiguity within the way the symbolic plants, animals and identical female exemplars are depicted and move in and out of a perceived power.
Metaphorical “images of spring” come to life in works including insects, buds and blossoms, and sculptures of bobcats, mountain lions and peacocks (The Beautiful Cocks and Pussies). A large Swarovski crystal encrusted Mountain Lion titled "Married to a Poem" aggressively pursues the only male depiction within the installation, a giant Albino Peacock titled "Given Away by a Novel" a reference to a love poem by John Keats. (Actual Keats Quote 1819: Married to a Poem and Given away by a Novel) These natural forms act as objects of devotion while simultaneously representing a form of satire exploring the motivations and contradictions of physical and material desire.
The theme of desire is constant in Thomas' paintings as well. Her “porn-traits” – oil painted hybrids of self-portraiture and pornographic imagery - refer to the pervasive media-influence, body commodity and the narcissistic aspects of desire. Throughout “Pillow Book As Inheritance,” replicated forms and images allude to cultural fascinations with facsimile, verisimilitude, mimicry and erotic simulacra.
Thomas’ pillow book elaborates on the visual language of euphemism, kitsch and pun to demonstrate our societal vernacular to the point of vacuousness, appealing to our insatiable desires, bombarding the viewer with shine, craft and bling. Performing desire and gender, examining power relations, strategies of beauty, with a sense of humor, prerogative and non-compliance, Thomas’ book of advice mocks and tutors her viewers on the ways of today's eroticism. Her work is both illuminating and idealistic through absurdity, paradox and satire.