Chris Thompson
Kitbash
6th July - 3rd August 2024
‘Kitbash’ is an installation rooted in a speculative exploration of 'Freeports’ as systems of consumption, transportation and processors of material, people, and wealth; via the labour of model making and low-fi craft. The exhibition is conceived specifically in relation to Thompson's own experience of being brought up in the North East of England, where a new and enormous Freeport ‘Teesworks’ has been created as part of the former Conservative government's "levelling-up" strategy, as well as a new political reality for a so-called ‘Red Wall’ area. The aim being to drive discourse around economic zones of ambiguity and gentrification; to consider a collective emotional relationship to infrastructure and systems at the point of breakdown. Often used by wealthy entities, Freeports perpetuate service-provision from less wealthy individuals while avoiding tax contributions that are meant to regenerate environments and communities. This leads to a breakdown of synergy between the two sides, driving an emotional affliction with the imposing physical structures that become monolithic symbols of division.
Inspired by the techniques of scenic world-making used in theatre and film, Thompson speculates on potential futures through the method of ‘kit-bashing’; a means to abstract and distort realities by making a new scale model by taking pieces out of premade kits. Commercial model kits provide a wealth of identical, mass-produced components that add intricate details to existing models. Although it has a long history, kitbashing came to the attention of a wider public via the fine modelwork seen in TV series such as Thunderbirds, Star Trek and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey - all of which feature in this simulative work in one way or another. The practice involves cutting and shaping parts, filling crudely revealed gaps with putty, and adding textural details known as greebles to enhance the models. An approach to consuming and recycling labour, Kitbashing is a craft of love, fantasy, nerd-core, world building, fraud and ultimately; a test of identity.
Set within a series of miniature, retro-futurist shipping containers in a container park, the exhibition transports visitors to a speculative future moment with a nostalgic vibe. Fully interactive, the audience become investigators, excavators, and trespassers, exploring the contents of the containers. The central sculpture, surrounded by baroque-inspired, broken, buckled, and rusted metal, Kitbash transforms the gallery into a liminal storage facility awaiting circulation. Visitors can sift through fragmentary narrative devices embodied by objects and audiovisual materials.They can encounter absurdist elements, such as miniature models of imagined infrastructural projects culled from railway model enthusiasts, recordings of the shipping forecast, documentary footage of the demolition of the Listed Dorman Long Tower (which is now a container park set within Teesworks), as well as stereotypical sci-fi elements such as piping, tubing, exposed wires, and glowing interiors. Thompson invites visitors to question the journey of these objects and whether they are exploring a fully realised future moment.
“Are we exploring a future moment that has fully played itself out?”
The exhibition aims to raise awareness and generate discourse around opaque economic structures that often conflict with the communities they inhabit. By kit-bashing his own city and identity, Thompson adds a layer of dark humour, creating a spiralling dialogue between artist, economy, self-meaning, and collective empathy. This exhibition critically reflects on the conditions that produce it, exploring the value (or lack thereof) of individual labour, self-production, aspiration, and the detritus we continuously recreate.
The conflation of the real and fictional, hopeful and dystopic, magical and horrible serves as a method of interrogating the show's subjects. Ultimately, this absurdist survey of interconnected collapses invites visitors to engage in a multifaceted exploration of contemporary economic and social issues through the synthesised lens of Thompson’s future (or should that be past) world.
Chris Thompson (b, 1991, Teesside) is an artist and curator working in sculpture and Installation.
Chris is interested in making art that appropriates, reconfigures and antagonises a diverse cast of materials, objects and references to build speculative, anthropological enquiries into cultural memory and the contradictions embedded within contemporary existence.
He makes exhibitions through re-contextualization, classic modes of production and through the construction of fiction in which audiences circulate. His work typically takes the form of immersive sculptural installations with a site and contextual responsivity. Humour, audience interactivity and spectacle are recurring methods of exploring subjects.
All enquiries [email protected]
Chris Thompson
Kitbash
6th July - 3rd August 2024
‘Kitbash’ is an installation rooted in a speculative exploration of 'Freeports’ as systems of consumption, transportation and processors of material, people, and wealth; via the labour of model making and low-fi craft. The exhibition is conceived specifically in relation to Thompson's own experience of being brought up in the North East of England, where a new and enormous Freeport ‘Teesworks’ has been created as part of the former Conservative government's "levelling-up" strategy, as well as a new political reality for a so-called ‘Red Wall’ area. The aim being to drive discourse around economic zones of ambiguity and gentrification; to consider a collective emotional relationship to infrastructure and systems at the point of breakdown. Often used by wealthy entities, Freeports perpetuate service-provision from less wealthy individuals while avoiding tax contributions that are meant to regenerate environments and communities. This leads to a breakdown of synergy between the two sides, driving an emotional affliction with the imposing physical structures that become monolithic symbols of division.
Inspired by the techniques of scenic world-making used in theatre and film, Thompson speculates on potential futures through the method of ‘kit-bashing’; a means to abstract and distort realities by making a new scale model by taking pieces out of premade kits. Commercial model kits provide a wealth of identical, mass-produced components that add intricate details to existing models. Although it has a long history, kitbashing came to the attention of a wider public via the fine modelwork seen in TV series such as Thunderbirds, Star Trek and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey - all of which feature in this simulative work in one way or another. The practice involves cutting and shaping parts, filling crudely revealed gaps with putty, and adding textural details known as greebles to enhance the models. An approach to consuming and recycling labour, Kitbashing is a craft of love, fantasy, nerd-core, world building, fraud and ultimately; a test of identity.
Set within a series of miniature, retro-futurist shipping containers in a container park, the exhibition transports visitors to a speculative future moment with a nostalgic vibe. Fully interactive, the audience become investigators, excavators, and trespassers, exploring the contents of the containers. The central sculpture, surrounded by baroque-inspired, broken, buckled, and rusted metal, Kitbash transforms the gallery into a liminal storage facility awaiting circulation. Visitors can sift through fragmentary narrative devices embodied by objects and audiovisual materials.They can encounter absurdist elements, such as miniature models of imagined infrastructural projects culled from railway model enthusiasts, recordings of the shipping forecast, documentary footage of the demolition of the Listed Dorman Long Tower (which is now a container park set within Teesworks), as well as stereotypical sci-fi elements such as piping, tubing, exposed wires, and glowing interiors. Thompson invites visitors to question the journey of these objects and whether they are exploring a fully realised future moment.
“Are we exploring a future moment that has fully played itself out?”
The exhibition aims to raise awareness and generate discourse around opaque economic structures that often conflict with the communities they inhabit. By kit-bashing his own city and identity, Thompson adds a layer of dark humour, creating a spiralling dialogue between artist, economy, self-meaning, and collective empathy. This exhibition critically reflects on the conditions that produce it, exploring the value (or lack thereof) of individual labour, self-production, aspiration, and the detritus we continuously recreate.
The conflation of the real and fictional, hopeful and dystopic, magical and horrible serves as a method of interrogating the show's subjects. Ultimately, this absurdist survey of interconnected collapses invites visitors to engage in a multifaceted exploration of contemporary economic and social issues through the synthesised lens of Thompson’s future (or should that be past) world.
Chris Thompson (b, 1991, Teesside) is an artist and curator working in sculpture and Installation.
Chris is interested in making art that appropriates, reconfigures and antagonises a diverse cast of materials, objects and references to build speculative, anthropological enquiries into cultural memory and the contradictions embedded within contemporary existence.
He makes exhibitions through re-contextualization, classic modes of production and through the construction of fiction in which audiences circulate. His work typically takes the form of immersive sculptural installations with a site and contextual responsivity. Humour, audience interactivity and spectacle are recurring methods of exploring subjects.
All enquiries [email protected]
Xxijra Hii
Enclave 4
50 Resolution Way,
London SE8 4AL
Xxijra Hii is a member of New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC).