‘LH+RH+LHRH (Grasp)’ (2024), is a vast, site-specific installation of 990 fired clay shapes arranged in three 10 x 3 meter grids on the floor of the space. The artwork gives three-dimensional form to negative space, the tactile and labour – all the unseen values routinely forgotten, ignored or even wilfully marginalised in our estimation and appreciation of works of art.

Each clay shape was made left by grasping a lump of raw clay in the artist’s hand/s (the left, the right hand and both hands). The result is an array of 990 bone-like fragments spread across the distance on the floor. This layout evokes anthropological and archaeological sites of discovery.

The act of ‘grasping’ at negative space now becomes a metaphor for the unknown, suggesting that tactility, labour and the material remain largely untapped reservoirs for rethinking our limited knowledge and understanding of the world. In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Thom writes that: “…in this negative space, there exists throughout our long history a million other beginnings, false starts, and thwarted attempts at meaning — all of which came to naught because we were too busy looking at the world from afar, beguiled by the easy charms of our intellectual focus and its capacity to make sense of things. What did we miss and how many more ideas, inventions, and possibilities will suffer the same fate? I really cannot say, but in my own way I have at least attempted to give this question a temporary material form”.

Also included in the exhibition is “Grasp (Fragment),” an educational kit developed for the tactile exploration and teaching of sculpture, in collaboration with Prof. Jenni Louwrens (Associate Professor in Visual Studies, School of the Arts, UP), The student Gallery at the Javett UP, the Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust and the Villa-Legodi Center for Sculpture. Please click here for more information (PDF download).

The artworks on exhibition have been generously supported by a number of organisations: NIROX Foundation; Villa-Legodi Center for Sculpture; Modern Art Projects South Africa; Casa Wabi, Mexico; The National Research Foundation of South Africa; The School of the Arts, University of Pretoria & Kalashnikovv Gallery.

All Photographs by Anthea Pokroy, expect for the photograph of the artist with the installation by Alet Pretorius.