Studio Project 16: April 2009
Tom Varley
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Playing upon the notion of an open studio, Varley has produced works in progress. An installation of objects that resemble the debris and residue from experimentation; old works merging into new, use of raw materials (paper clay, wood, paint) exploring failed/undermined attempts to communicate.
Varley’s sculptural elements are situated deliberately creating a staged non-functional studio environment.
Varley uses this process of displacement and combination to create a theorectical situation where
contradiction prevails and meaning becomes suspended. Varley combines alusions to May-Day, Paganism, Anarcho-Punk graphics with references to artistic styles and to symbolic objects, in particular the ‘Maypole’. He uses this object to compose the installation within the space and seeks to undermine and destabilise their determined meanings or loaded cultural connotations. These
conflicting associations are layered throughout the work to the extent that they cannot be assimilated into one coherent interpretation.