Artists
Thoms, Jol
Our Stoney Biographies, 2020
Courtesy: Jol Thoms, Foto: Jol Thoms
Our Stoney Biographies consists of a series of rock sculptures by artist and researcher Jol Thoms. The rocks were found by him or called to him in the course of his life, his travels, and his on-site fieldwork. Together with a group of scientists, he visited the Turkana Basin in Kenya in search of 1.8 million-year-old stromatolite fossils: the first and oldest biological creatures on earth, some of them dating back 3.4 billion years. The fossils are an important source of information about the early development of life on Earth and possibly on other planets as well, providing an archive of Earth’s biosphere. By using these fossils as a starting point for his sculptures, Thoms responds to rocks and fossils as carriers of knowledge, sharing in their essence a representation and understanding of where it came from or where it has been. Other rocks depicted in the sculptures were collected in the vicinity of the Solitude forest, during his residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Instead of detaching himself from the found object, the artist considers the rocks as life forces, as wise entities to which we also belong. They offer a sense of self-recognition, a connection within and as nature, indistinguishable from the “material” world. They are objects with which we constantly exchange energy with.
Out of the need to work with his hands, Thoms started to develop sculptures with brass and the found rocks. The works are created by intuitive sketching or scribbling, in which the artist balances different forces, such as the flexible material of brass in combination with the solidity of the stones and gravity of the Earth. Through a playful interaction with this flexible and porous material, the works depict rocks as mystically floating, vibrant beings that are multi-temporal, inhabiting both our past and present.
Text: Sarie Nijboer; deutsche Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler
Our Stoney Biographies consists of a series of rock sculptures by artist and researcher Jol Thoms. The rocks were found by him or called to him in the course of his life, his travels, and his on-site fieldwork. Together with a group of scientists, he visited the Turkana Basin in Kenya in search of 1.8 million-year-old stromatolite fossils: the first and oldest biological creatures on earth, some of them dating back 3.4 billion years. The fossils are an important source of information about the early development of life on Earth and possibly on other planets as well, providing an archive of Earth’s biosphere. By using these fossils as a starting point for his sculptures, Thoms responds to rocks and fossils as carriers of knowledge, sharing in their essence a representation and understanding of where it came from or where it has been. Other rocks depicted in the sculptures were collected in the vicinity of the Solitude forest, during his residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Instead of detaching himself from the found object, the artist considers the rocks as life forces, as wise entities to which we also belong. They offer a sense of self-recognition, a connection within and as nature, indistinguishable from the “material” world. They are objects with which we constantly exchange energy with.
Out of the need to work with his hands, Thoms started to develop sculptures with brass and the found rocks. The works are created by intuitive sketching or scribbling, in which the artist balances different forces, such as the flexible material of brass in combination with the solidity of the stones and gravity of the Earth. Through a playful interaction with this flexible and porous material, the works depict rocks as mystically floating, vibrant beings that are multi-temporal, inhabiting both our past and present.
Text: Sarie Nijboer; deutsche Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler