Wapiti

The semi-mythic creations of Thompson find a language in shared, decentralised symbolism — exploring identity as thrown onto objects by artist or viewer, or insinuated in coincidental action or operation. ‘Wapiti’ is a sculpture of particularly vivid and monstrous proportion, the artist utilising a combination of hand-build elements and new and existing moulds to build his ceramics — the practice extending the unconscious state in which results are arrived at. In opposition to later, more muted or metallic palettes, the work is finished with a vibrancy and naturalism applied in a full spectrum of airbrushed acrylic paint, and the overall scale and detail of the hybrid female/deer aspect is readily conducive of religious or pagan deities.