Sculpture At | Charlie Godet Thomas

About

Entitled Cloud Study, Godet Thomas’ sculpture, which will be unveiled in Bermondsey Square on 2 October 2017, uses the form of a weather vane to represent states of emotional well-being. A speech bubble sits atop a two-metre high vane, which turns in the wind revealing the phrase ‘- yo’ is stuck in thar fo’ever li’l gray cloud.!’ that has been laser cut into the steel shape so as to be visible from both  sides.

The line comes from the widely syndicated American cartoon ‘Li’l Abner’ created by Al Cap that ran between 1934 – 1977. In the comic strip, one of its characters, Joe Btfsplk, entombs the cloud that bedevils him in a cave, sealing it with a boulder. Similar to the myth of the ostrich burying its head in the sand, the protection this offers is, of course, illusory.

A playfully metaphorical work that embraces the personal and political, Cloud Study invites the viewer to meditate on the tragi-comic nature of life, with the movement of the vane mirroring these oscillations as it twists and turns in the wind.

Says Charlie Godet Thomas: ‘In Cloud Study, I hope to evade what I see as the traditional hallmarks of public sculpture: for an imposing quality to be substituted by quietness, heroism by the everyday, stillness by function, sternness by humour, and vulnerability in the place of grandstanding.’

Says Director of VITRINE and SCULPTURE AT Alys Williams: ‘SCULPTURE AT was founded with the aim of creating an experimental platform for artists to make work in the public realm; a platform to include artists without previous public sculpture experience. I am therefore delighted to invite Charlie Godet Thomas to take this opportunity – at a very exciting moment for his practice – to see his first public commission come into  fruition.’

Running concurrent with the SCULPTURE AT commission, Godet Thomas has his first solo show in Switzerland at VITRINE, Basel. The exhibition, entitled Roman-fleuve, consists of new works that explore visual poetry and the connections between the autobiographical, the tragic and the humorous. The exhibition runs until 3 December 2018.

About SCULPTURE AT:

SCULPTURE AT was founded by VITRINE director Alys Williams and artist Karen Tang in 2014 as a platform for temporary, large-scale public sculpture. Its second edition - co-project managed by Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre - will run during 2017 and 2018, and, as with its first incarnation, it will commission large-scale, temporary works by mid-career and emerging  artists.

The sculptures are all sited in Bermondsey Square, south east London, for a six-month period. There are no guidelines for the commissions, and by avoiding the need for permanence it gives artists the freedom to experiment and create works that might not otherwise be possible.

SCULPTURE AT’s third installation will be by Swiss artist Edit Oderbolz (March – September 2018), and was selected in partnership with established Swiss curator Claire Hoffman, building on VITRINE’s links with the art community in Switzerland. The first edition, which took place between 2014 and 2016, featured Karen Tang, Edwin Burdis, and Frances Richardson. The programme has a number of project partners, including Contemporary Arts Society and Pangaea Sculptors’   Centre.

About Charlie Godet Thomas:

Charlie Godet Thomas (b.1985, London, UK) lives and works in Mexico. Having studied a BA in Fine Art (Sculpture) at Manchester School of Art in 2009, he graduated with an MA in Fine Art (Sculpture) from the Royal College of Art, London in 2014 where he was awarded the Bermuda Arts Council Scholarship and the Peter Leitner  Scholarship.

Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Internal Rhyme’, Ladrón Galería, Mexico City (2017); ‘Bildungsroman’, Carillon Gallery, Fort Worth, Texas (2017); ‘Strandline’, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Leeds (2016); ‘Torschlusspanik’, VITRINE, London (2015); ‘To Be Is To Do, To Do Is To Be, Do Be Do Be Do’, Telfer Gallery, Glasgow (2015) ‘In Comes the Good Air, Out Goes the Bad Air, In Comes the Good Air’, Cactus, Liverpool (2015) and ‘A Method for Writing/A Method for Making’, BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK (2014). Group exhibitions include: ‘…in Dark Times’, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2017); Bermuda Biennial, The Bermuda National Gallery, Bermuda (2012, 2014 and 2016); ‘Incunabula’, Norwich Cathedral Library (2015); RCA/ECA Edinburgh Sculpture Court, Edinburgh, Scotland (2015); ‘An evanescent fix’, VITRINE (2015); ‘Escape to a Sparkling Moment’, Bloc Projects, Sheffield UK (2015); ‘Bending Light’, Home-Platform, Bristol, UK (2014); ‘END’, Cactus, Liverpool, UK (2014); Royal College of Art WIP Show, RCA, London, UK (2013) and Brussels, Belgium (2012). In 2015, he was included in DAZED’s ‘Artists we’re watching out for’   list.

He was in residence in Fort Worth, Texas in April 2017 and at Caribbean Linked IV at Ateliers ’89 in Oranjestad, Aruba, in  August 2016.