{"id":74761,"date":"2024-04-27T08:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T15:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=74761"},"modified":"2024-06-05T18:24:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T01:24:49","slug":"adam-thomas-assembles-places-to-dream-in-finch-lane-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/adam-thomas-assembles-places-to-dream-in-finch-lane-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Thomas Assembles Places to Dream in Finch Lane Exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Two<\/a>

Adam Thomas’ \u201cHaving Entered Into Their Rest\u201d at Finch Lane Gallery. Image by Geoff Wichert<\/p><\/div>\n

At the Springville Art Museum\u2019s 2023 Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah <\/i>exhibition, among the hundreds of excellent works that found their way into what must be one of the largest exhibitions of recent art anywhere, one piece that stood out was by an artist unknown to me. Titled \u201cHaving Entered Into Their Rest,\u201d its two parts suggested a pair of adult-sized high chairs, though it was a challenge to see how anyone could actually sit on them. Assembled as if by accident from suggestive fragments, recognizable or not, not so much collected for the purpose as found on the fly and drafted into service, they suggested the way evolution seems to take whatever is available and press it into service to fill an unanticipated need.<\/h4>\n

\u201cHaving Entered Into Their Rest\u201d won an Award of Merit, but its obscure title, taken from the New Testament Book of Hebrews, may have stymied viewers\u2019 efforts, mine included, to better appreciate such perplexing furniture. The point of both the scripture and the art may be that the required labor is never done, though sometimes we have to take a break, as the biblical Creator did on that first Sabbath, accepting that once restored, we will return to the ongoing task. It\u2019s a candid look at a creation that is, in truth, incomplete: a work in progress.<\/h4>\n

When the name Adam Thomas<\/a> appeared on Finch Lane\u2019s calendar, only moments online were necessary to learn about oddduckstudio<\/a>, which in person he calls a shop, rather than a studio, wherein he also fabricates sets and props for Utah\u2019s energetic film industry, and which on a more-or-less monthly schedule triples as a resource space for his fellow artists. Harder to connect him with, his Moonglass Gallery<\/a> is both a retail artists\u2019 outlet and an antique store, one of the nodes in the Wasatch Front network of Assemblage artists, most of whom teach nearby and haunt the shifting resale scene. The litany of galleries where he\u2019s shown covers Ogden to BYU, but with SLC conspicuous by its absence. This month at Finch Lane is meant to be the first step in correcting that oversight, if \u201csight\u201d can be used in reference to virtual invisibility.<\/h4>\n
\"Artistic<\/a>

Adam Thomas, “Four Poster Rope Bridge”<\/p><\/div>\n

Reminiscent Reflections\u2014Evolving Memories Over Time <\/i>includes 12 works, all but one large enough and so visually magnetic that the presence in their midst of \u201cHaving Entered Into Their Rest\u201d only became apparent when standing before it, at which point a host of clues tumbled into place. Motion picture sets and props demand tremendous creativity and resourcefulness, both of which Thomas displays on line and in the gallery. Two elements sorely lacking in today\u2019s mainstream art are manual skill and dexterity: the abilities required to actually make ones art, which in turn feed back into the creative imagination. There can be no doubt that in his production work, Thomas hones the skills that enabled him to create, in every sense of that word, \u201cFamily Resemblance,\u201d a 3-D mandala collaged in space from hyper-modern chairs, or \u201cThinking on the Topic,\u201d a bentwood rocking chair that literally \u201cthinks on\u201d its own self-referential, mirror image. One structure, unfortunately not present at Finch Lane, makes the point best: \u201cSpiral Chair-case\u201d consists of a climbing spiral of chairs, rather than stairs, that give the cinematic effect of a stop-motion ascent. The craft necessary to realize this wonder empowers the imagination to invent it.<\/h4>\n

The individual parts of a Thomas sculpture are like the individuals who contribute their attributes to a group effort. The ladders that elevate the seats in \u201cHaving Entered\u201d refer backward, to the \u201cladder back\u201d style, and forward, to the necessary reassignment of chairs in places there are no ladders. The front legs of one are cobbled-on shovels, which invert their elevating role with a promise of stability. It\u2019s possible to see here how identities assigned on the basis of roles are less than permanent features.<\/h4>\n