The Wayward Thinker. On show paintings, drawings, assemblages, installations, sculptures and objects. In this exhibition we are introduced to St. Sesom, a free-thinking vegan minister, who is inspired to help other vegans become men again by being friendly to mounds.
The Wayward Thinker
The Fruitmarket Gallery is proud to present the first
European solo exhibition of the work of Trenton Doyle
Hancock, a young American artist whose paintings,
drawings, assemblages, installations, sculptures and
objects pack a powerful visual and imaginative punch.
Born in 1974 in Oklahoma City, Hancock grew up the son of
a Baptist minister in the semi-rural town of Paris, Texas.
At university, he studied illustration, then drawing and
painting. Profoundly committed to drawing, He was initially
uncertain whether to become a fine artist, cartoonist or
illustrator. At that point, he recalls, ‘I formulated a mission
statement. The idea was to have a painting project in
which I could freely jump between modes of production
and maintain a set of characters that inhabit the work’.
All Hancock’s mature work has been produced in the
context of this project, an epic, ongoing saga which turns
autobiography into mythology in a classic battle between
good and evil as represented by gentle, peace-loving
Mounds, and violent, repressive Vegans. In this exhibition we
are introduced to St. Sesom, a free-thinking vegan minister,
who is inspired to help other vegans become men again
by being friendly to mounds. Sesom’s story is told through
large-scale collaged paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture,
installation and incantations writ large on the Gallery walls.
A submersive experience, the theatrical installation banishes
pre-conceived ideas about art while thrusting the viewer
literally and figuratively into Hancock’s mythic drama.
Opening: 10 february 2007
The Fruitmarket Gallery
45 Market Street - Edimburgh
Free admission