Thomas W. Dowdeswell: The Age of People Who Live With Their Heads in Boxes

About

For his first London Solo Exhibition, Bristol-based artist Thomas Dowdeswell is delving deeper into ‘People who live with their heads in boxes’, a theme he previously explored in his recent “American” series of works.

Pulling back the curtain on current issues, Dowdeswell challenges the viewer to confront and empathise with multiple perspectives, literally and theoretically.

Featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures and a video installation, the exhibition focuses on the transformation of traditional democratic values and the divisions between cultures, classes, races and sexes; Dowdeswell hopes it will trigger a debate on populism, narcissism, freedom of speech and the uncertainties of the future.

‘We walk easily and blindly into simple repetitions of history. We ignore the folly. We ignore each other. We walk in sad, unlearned circles around the subjects which divide us and consume us. We walk towards ignorance, stupidity and obliteration. With gammy legs and hateful spluttered, muttered words from press gang populists, we cling to the media’s beliefs and buzzwords because we are unable to formulate out own. We walk blindly. We parade around the innocent and the dead with our heads buried deep in boxes’. Thomas Dowdeswell

With a passing resemblance to Dali or Bacon, Dowdeswell’s indistinguishable faceless figures and surrealist style create a dreamscape atmosphere where he deliberately juxtaposes imagery of desperation and opulence, victimisation and exploitation, in an attempt to explore the inequality of society through a flurry of abstraction and symbolism.