Carolyn Thompson Great Loves and Other Works at Eagle Gallery, London, 2014
My work is concerned with language and process. I’m interested in the interconnectivity between words, place and time, and in durational activities such as reading, walking, writing and stitching as both process and performance.
I cut, edit, weave, fold, stitch, draw, erase, walk and re-write. While my work often hints at personal politics, these mediative, repetitive and sometimes performative actions promote an intimacy with process that enables the work to act as an extension of self. Using these methods, I investigate the links between the passing of time, ageing and mental wellbeing while exploring the hidden narratives of women in contemporary and/or historical contexts. My multi-disciplinary practice incorporates altered texts, drawings, installations, book works, textiles, performance, and sound and video works. I’m currently working on new large-scale textile works.
I’ve exhibited widely in the UK and internationally at institutions including Center for Book Arts, New York, MGLC International Centre for Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, and MAK Vienna. My work can be found in several public collections.
Recent projects include: Vague Poetics (2023), commissioned by Matt’s Gallery, London; Silenced (2021), commissioned by Nasty Women Connecticut and Yale Institute of Sacred Music; The Last Walk Home (2020-21), a residency with North Yorkshire Archives and Chrysalis Arts; and Food Lovers (2020) commissioned by Imprints of the New Modernist Editing. Work from Post Moderns, initially shown at the Laurence Sterne Trust, won the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Prize People’s Book Art Award in 2020.
I’m represented by Eagle Gallery, London.