Caragh Thuring’s (b. 1972) exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery opens today. A few weeks ahead of the opening, Thuring welcomed a small group into her studio. Her work was still in the final stages before completion. I was impressed to see an artist being open and candid about her working and thinking process at that nerve-wracking stage when things are coming together. A few paintings still unfinished were in the studio.
Caragh told us about her need to keep the process and the final work fluid; about her need to start a painting without preliminary drawings or a specific idea in mind of the final result. Thuring’s wish to reconsider her previous work is taken to the full consequences in this exhibition. She has scanned previous paintings (from her exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery in 2014) to be reproduced as tapestries and then reworked by being stitched together, painted over and, in some cases, gilded.
The ominous presence of recurring motives like the brickwork, the submarine and the two McAlpine oil towers of the North Sea reveal the industrious background whilst Thuring was studying. She explains humorously that the towers were built off-site and one day she saw them passing by her window as they were being transported. There is a clear sense that these large-scale paintings behave as geographic, political and social maps. The physicality of these works makes it an immersive experience. All-over grids of brickwork, the kilt pattern and red bold calligraphy makes these works, not pretty, but attractive and sensuous objects.
The painting above is a direct allusion to the London skyline. Church names as well as renowned financial buildings from the City of London are listed sequentially. In this mantra-like repetition with a Twomblyesque aesthetic, stands out the artist’s ability to conceptualise the clash between the defunct function of these churches and the hyper-active and productive City. Whilst none of the works depict people in them, this exhibition relates to our inhabiting of the current geo-political structures. Go and populate it.
