Thom’s works tacitly embody the argument for the rethinking of matter, touch, material and density. In his current solo exhibition Grasp, Thom posits that above and below the pressurised surface of volatile critical debates, density also denotes the mass, volume and weightlessness of critical thought being imprinted on — and within — the floating world of liquid modernity”.

Wayne Binitie

An incomplete series of written and photographic echoes. To the reader, they may not at first appear to be those of nature. But I assure you, they are. I might be writing them, but the words carry deep within them the traces of our natural world, or at least, what counts for it these days. As Bachelard makes clear, ‘everything in the universe is an echo’. In this way we may say that humans — indeed all living things — echo nature not only through ‘cultures’ but in the very material technologies and discoveries that accompany and help shape them…I am interested in tracing the nonsensical, factual intersections of matter that (re)produce the echos that have impacted my life with such force that I eventually became a keeper and a maker of images — an artist.

Johan Thom

Johan Thom: Grasp (2025) is the first monograph published about the life and work of South African artist Johan Thom (b1976). In the book questions of tactile knowledge, materiality, memory and labor all converge through a series of texts that include poetry, fiction and more theoretic approaches to the written word and its relationship to (South African) art. The book features contributions by Sven Christian (ZA), Dr. Wayne Binitie (UK), Sikho Siyotula-Siegemund (ZA/DE) , Sudeep Sen (IN) & Johan Thom (ZA).

Johan Thom: Grasp was published on the occasion of ‘Johan Thom: New works’ a solo exhibition by Thom curated by Sven Christian and held at the NIROX Foundation Sept 2024 – Feb 2025.

You may read and/or download the book for free here. There is also limited run of 100 printed copies available through the website: https://www.villa-legodi.com/publications-1/johan-thom-grasp

PUBLISHERS: Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture / University of Johannesburg Press
YEAR:2025
PLACE: Johannesburg
EDITOR: Sven Christian
CONTRIBUTORS: Sven Christian, Dr. Wayne Binitie, Sikho Siyotula-Siegemund, Sudeep Sen, Johan Thom
COVER: Soft-cover
PAGES: 127
ISBN: 978-1-0370-8085-2
SUPPORT: The Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust