ARTWORKER OF THE WEEK #1

David Thorpe @ Iterim Art

Mark Sladen (a curator a the Barbican) talks to artist David Thorpe about his recent work Good People.

Good People can be seen in David Thorpe's current exhibition at Interim Art in Bethnal Green. Thorpe (b 1972, London) is part of the wave of artists who emerged directly after the YBAs. He was noticed for his collages of intricately cut paper, which were featured in exhibitions such as Die Young Stay Pretty (ICA, 1998). Thorpe's current show includes a number of pictures featuring quirky Modernist buildings in wilderness settings. These works mark a stylistic departure for the artist, who has modified his collage technique to include not just paper but a host of other materials.

Mark Sladen: How did you go about making Good People?

David Thorpe: There is a vast variety of materials in there, as I was trying to get a sense of equivalents to the actual materials used in the architecture depicted, almost like a miniature building. The building in the picture is made out of very thick veneers – also oxidised copper, pebbles, Playdo, a little bit of net curtain.

MS: What interests you about using materials that are like the things represented?

DT: I wanted to get more hard-core about building my own world. I've always been interested in creating my own world and it seems like common sense that if I'm constructing a tree I should do it in bark. You can also get different spatial levels, starting with tissue paper, using harder materials as you build it up; and usually the materials also get thicker so it's like this shallow relief. The technique also seems appropriate to the subject matter – these obsessive, hick communities. These pictures are images of things, but they could also potentially be manufactured within these worlds. They could be the types of images that would be seen inside these buildings. I'm always trying to find equivalences between the subject matter and the materials, and as in the last few years the subject matter has become more esoteric so the materials have become odder.

MS: How particular are the references you are making in these works?

DT: The architectural references have come out of my interest in Modernism – I've recently become interested in these fringe architects like Bruce Goff who made a kind of organic architecture. And I've been getting into the lifestyles and communities that these buildings seem to be made for. I'm playing with certain associations, slightly New Age, slightly Space Age, slightly threatening. I find most fundamentalist communities extremely worrying but I'm absolutely in love with people who build up their own systems of belief. I think my work has always been made from the position of a fan. When I was at college I was always envious of the people in bands – who could make music about the kind of stuff they were into. I slowly began to make work about the stuff in which I was interested. It's always been about participating in the things I love.

David Thorpe: New Kingdoms are Here
Interim Art
21 Herald St., E2
020.7729.9616
On view until October 20

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