BODY FRAMING
2023
Silicone, ballet barres, wood, steel
66 x 86 cm
4400 €
FLUID GRAVITY
The works presented in the exhibition Fluid Gravitiy are a further development of the work series Liquid Skin, in which Thomas Lempertz deals with human skin as a symbolic surface. As an individual characteristic, skin not only surrounds every single person, but every person is universally defined by their body, which is inseparably connected to their own skin.
In this sense, skin is also always an identifying attribute that is often tied to cliché role models through assumptions, which Lempertz aims to break down. The works in light shades of pink are complemented by works in which the shiny, deep black color predominates and only in individual places does the pink flash through the dark, oily surfaces.
Lempertz‘s works are characterized by the combination of contrasting positions. His sculptural works seem to be less static in their form, but rather in motion. For the former ballet dancer, his own body and its movement are always the starting point for his works. The flowing forms of the solidified silicone can therefore be understood as a translation of movement in dance into the medium of sculpture.
Silicone is often used to create exact casts and serial copies. Lempertz, on the other hand, reverses this processing of the material, which is aiming for absolute perfection, in his works. He makes use of the ability of silicone to remain in a form very quickly. Through the sometimes expressive use of the material, he incorporates chance into the creative process and creates individual unique pieces. The resulting works contrast the increasingly widespread social obsession with self-optimization by not subjecting them to any subsequent processing and thus negating the desire for flawlessness.
Thomas Lempertz studied dance at the John Cranko School and was later part of the Stuttgart Ballet company, including as a soloist under Reid Anderson. After ending his career as a dancer in 2003, he dedicated himself to the field of costume design and studied „Intermedia Arts“ at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts.
His work is characterized by the combination of the disciplines of performance, dance, photography and object art.