BIOGRAPHY - DR VIRGINIA BUTTON (curator, art historian, previously Tate and Turner Prize)

Artist Roger Thorp's multi-media installations are unapologetically infused with a nostalgic romanticism. His work is informed by a deeply-felt belief that as a society, and as individuals, we need to come home, to remember a less rapacious and frenetic way of living, more connected on an emotional level to each other, and to nature. But if his work is a protest, it's an optimistic and tender one. 

Interest in the autobiographical, in memory, the appreciation of beauty and poetic use of word and image to evoke emotional responses all feature in his work. Based in Cornwall, he has developed a body of work in which film (his original practice) is often combined with other media to create immersive installations that set out to speak directly to the heart rather than the head.

ART PRACTICE

Using film, music, poetry and form his work explores ecological and socio-political issues as well as our temporal relationship with eternity. Creating immersive installations his practice is drawn from the European cinema and rock poets of the latter half of the last century and expressed through a visual interpretation of his own poetry. Art, to touch the senses, exposing our proximity to nothingness. In his installation Dwell he asks "what do you feel when cold and all alone you gaze at the stars in a clear winters sky". He seeks to reclaim the grace of humility and wonder in a world littered with careless visual pollution. To slow down, dwell on the image, to discover the subject more deeply, finding quietude and reason. He hopes to offer the viewer the chance to do this, if only for a little while.

PROFILE

Roger Thorp is a film artist who lives and works in Cornwall, England and Andratx, Spain. Thorp previously worked in music videos with The Clash, Iggy Pop and U2 among others before directing/producing programmes for NGO's such as World Wildlife Fund, International Labour Organisation, Greenpeace and the International Red Cross, working in Australia, Mongolia and the USA. Other work by Thorp as a writer/director, including arthouse feature drama, has been screened in Rome, Barcelona, Berlin, Oslo, Copenhagen, Istanbul, USA, Cornwall and London. 

He is represented by Anima Mundi Gallery in UK. Recent exhibitions include The Dreamer's Heart at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, A Tinderbox of Fables - James Turrell Skyspace, Songs for the Hard Earth and Dreaming - European Tour: Berlin, Oslo, Copenhagen.

EXHIBITION QUOTES 

Stunning visual poetry; utterly transporting 

Fantastic, eerie and enticing makes one ponder the condition of existence in a poetic way

Completely entrancing and unique ... you really forget where you are

An amazing surprise. I was completely immersed in the atmosphere. I loved it. Best in the world

A wonderful journey...It's rare to get chills from such installations

Truly unique and enchanting. You transcend into a world full of wonder, pain, magic and beauty

"Amazing work, so very spiritual.