"Ziemlich genau in der Mitte des Querformats
ist eine Linie zu sehen. Das wäre der Horizont,
so ließe sich das jedenfalls mit Blick auf
andere Realitäten sagen. Dieser Horizont ist ein
ziemlich exakter, durchgehender roter Strich. Wahrscheinlich
wurde er mit einem Filzer gezogen, am
Lineal entlang. Satt und füllig liegt er auf dem guten
Papier. Oben und unten, wenn man so will als
Spiegelungen am Horizont, erscheinen jeweils zwei
(ebenfalls durchgehende) Bleistiftlinien. Radikaler
ist eine Zeichnung an sich kaum vorstellbar, denn
mehr ist auf diesem Blatt von Thomas Vinson nicht
zu sehen: „1 thick red + 2 double thin black. Der
Titel der Arbeit fasst diese Sensation des Grundsätzlichen
bereits zusammen. Es gibt freilich Blätter in
denen Linien sich als Streifen artikulieren, in denen
Vinson die Abstände der Leerzeilen unter sich variationsreicher
anwendet oder die diskreten Materialwechsel
häufiger praktiziert; wobei ‚Materialwechsel’
schon ein ziemlich starkes Wort ist, für die vorsichtige
Nutzung unterschiedlicher Schreibgeräte.
Das Grundsätzliche hat seine ganz eigene Komplexitätsspannung.
Möglich wäre immerhin, dass so eine
Versammlung horizontaler Linien gar nicht als
Zeichnung wahrgenommen wird, doch ein seltsames,
fast schon protestantisches „So und nicht anders“.
Modest objects
2015Text: Bogusław Deptuła
It takes a lot of courage to show this kind of art. Outside of a gallery setting, these objects might not be noticed at all. Even in hallowed exhibition spaces they retain their subtle and modest quality. Thomas Vinson makes objects that are unassuming, some might even say poor. It is as if he were using leftovers from a furniture factory – one that produces office or kitchen furniture, given how simple and sparing they are. But he is in fact proposing an original and very subtly executed concept of a new aesthetics or maybe even a new ontology of the artwork. Small, usually lacking vivid colors, these pieces, existing somewhere between sculpture, relief and painting, vie for our attention on gallery walls where they are arranged into intriguing compositions whose aesthetics and artistic grammar are far from banal. While some have a distinguished art-historical pedigree, many others have so far not been considered fit to be called art, yet are novel variations on neoplasticism, constructivism, suprematism – historical styles that Vinson clearly treats as a vital source of inspiration. To call these pieces minimalist is to miss the point. They are so far reduced that they go beyond the minimal, but are still objects. While there have been artists who exhibited dust, refuse, or nothing at all in galleries, Vinson is not so radical in his reductionism. His objects remind us of the beauty inherent in the most ordinary things, in natural colors, and in materials so commonplace they often pass unnoticed: pieces of plywood, fibreboard, snippets of cardboard or construction paper, or packaging tape, in its more traditional and genteel paper-backed version. Vinson places his objects on modest wooden shelves and arranges them into new configurations, a process that doubtless involves trying out numerous variants until he finds the one that is most intriguing and finished. Still, the process is always open-ended, admitting countless new arrangements. He also uses strips of wood to build structures resembling open-work columns, and is drawn to ready-mades, or items that could pass as such, like rebar grids, railway tracks, and iron or aluminum bars, whose solidity he surely finds appealing, like that of concrete, another material he uses. Vinson has a background in sculpture, but his thinking about space, sculpture, detail, and drawing has a strong structural, even architectural dimension. Relishing the minimal, the delicate, and the fleeting, he is a master of sublimation and skillful reduction. His fascination with architecture and space as sculptural materials is evident, and his spatial interventions, notably in post-industrial factory space, are subtle and accomplished. The world Thomas Vinson consistently builds with his art objects is smaller, quieter, more modest, and almost colorless. But in such a reduced world, even the slightest shift or tremor becomes a momentous transformation and a great achievement.
Over and Over
2014Text: Galerie Kim Behm, Frankfurt a. M.