Pyramid works
The little pizza box pieces below are an off shoot from an on-going exploration of pyramids. Originally inspired by a display at the Paris Science Museum on Triangulation, Thurle has begun to use the pyramid and triangle shape as a representation of thought and language patterns. Made mostly from old dictionaries, encyclopedias and academic texts on history or language, these pieces move the flat page into a 3D landcape, disrupting the traditional way of reading and categorising. Left to right lines of text are rearranged to form angles and disjunctions; the lines become a landscape of peaks and valleys. Mirrors, colour or snippets of image add to the disorientation of a traditional reading; guiding the eye in new ways across the lines as well as drawing the environment into the language itself. We can no longer read from one perspective.
'A single method can never adequately shed light on a phenomenon. Using multiple methods can help facilitate deeper understanding. The goal is not to seek consensus, but to understand multiple ways of seeing the data.' (From a Qualitative Research guidelines paper on Trianglulation)
Pizza-Box Takeaways
2017
For the 2017 Art Car Boot Fair on Folkestone's Harbour Arm, Thurle made a series of playful geometric works in which pages of text are cut and folded to form pyramid relief sculptures. 20X20x5cm, each piece was carefully constructed from old dictionaries and encyclopedias and presented in a takeaway pizza box. The takeaways proved highly popular. More to follow.
What’s Your Story?
A one day community participatory feedback project
Cardboard boxes, shed, felt-tip pens, glue
4x4m approx, 2011
Built over 6 hours for Stratford Shedspace Festival; busy commuters and shoppers at Stratford Mall were stopped and asked to go through a ‘writing-space’ shed and respond to the question, then add their ‘brick’ to a large spiral structure on the other side. Over 500 passers-by contributed, many coming back to watch the structure grow over the day. The responses were hugely varied and immediate, from a vastly diverse community, written and drawn in many languages and by all ages. The project was sponsored by Stratford Rising Consortium and was intended as a simple platform for response and opinion in a quickly changing area.
Peep into My World
An After Hours Art Activity Programme based on imagination, play and exploring
Cardboard boxes, tubes, ply, standard school art materials
2011
Based on the idea of a miniature city, the installation was built in the education space at the Chisenhale Gallery. KSI and II children from 6 schools contributed. Viewers were encouraged to wander amongst the child-scale structures, opening windows and peering into the interior imagined worlds the children had created during their art clubs. The project was funded by Tower Hamlets Extended Schools Services to encourage sustained out-of-hours art provision.
Don’t Box Me In
Two 3 month projects working with primary schools in The London Borough of Tower Hamlets in conjunction with The Museum of Childhood and The Docklands Museum
Cardboard boxes, standard school art materials
2009-10
Teachers at participating schools were invited to a training session aimed at encouraging creative expression and free thinking in art. Over 1000 students across the borough were then helped to personalise boxes which were brought together in two large scale installations celebrating creativity, individuality and ‘thinking outside the box’. Assisted by Sarah Pimenta.