Undefined shapes allow the examination of “hidden mysteries of dream worlds, the unknown, and the unconscious” in the work of Zipporah Camille Thompson, a visual artist and sculptor based in Atlanta. Thompson’s exhibition Ghost Yonder Moonscape, which opened March 1 in the Albany Museum of Art’s West Gallery and continues through June 15.
“Foraging for materials around me, I am drawn to collecting fragments and objects, and assembling them to recreate the whole,” Thompson said. “Artifacts of the arcane fuse together past, present and future.
“The collagist, patchwork nature of my practice is an effort to reconstruct narrative, to recollect wilderness, to reconnect with the physical landscape, and to rekindle ties to the ancestors.”
Thompson says she explores ritual and alchemical transformations via the unknown and through universals. The metamorphosed, shapeshifters and hybrid landscapes reflect various archaeological, psychological and ecological affinities, as well as a personal investigation of self and otherness, she said.
“Wild handwoven textiles, fired clay, paper pulp, and handspun cord, meet found detritus, heated plastic, and roadside remnants,” she said. “ The work activates the imagination of the viewer in the participatory search for meaning and purpose in my work.”
Thompson earned her MFA from the University of Georgia and her BFA from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Her work has been featured in Sculpture Magazine, Art Papers, and others. She has shown at the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, Rogue Space in Chelsea, Gallery 400 in Chicago, and Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta. Her work also is included in numerous private collections.
She is a 2016 Artadia (Atlanta) Finalist, a recipient of the Zenobia Scholarship Award for residency at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, a 2018 NCECA Multicultural Fellow, and a 2018 Idea Capital grant recipient. She is currently a selected artist for The Creatives Program, with studio residency at The Goat Farm. Thompson is represented by Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta.
