Arts Thread

Franka Matthes Thompson’s practice is a cycle of obsession; an object or structure becomes a vessel, a feeling, a story, through its repetition, breaking the object down to its essence. Through drawing, writing, photographing, planning, and model-making, their objects of obsession become the basis of sculptural structure, acting as a centre point of a multi-element installation. Using a primary colour palette and raw material, these objects are playfully interpreted into wooden structures, simple but engineered, acting as a playground for obsession and the complexities of their perception of space, time, and personal identity. Sofas, bikes, bridges, and cars become vessels for exploring destructive tendencies, the intricacies of masculinity, moments of in-between, and the queerness of the body. When a structure is complete, accompanied by its instruction manual of writings, drawings, and images, the obsession resolves, and the cycle begins anew. Now go, sit on a sofa, ride a bike, have a pint, admire a bridge, take a picture of a car, and think about it.