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Past exhibition
The Light Turned Flimsey: Tower Project 3
12 December 2010 – 08 January 2011
The Rot of Rhythm, oil on canvas, 2010
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About exhibition
The New Hall Art Collection at Murray Edwards College is pleased present an exhibition of paintings by Oxford artist, Jan Crombie. Crombie’s body of work reflects a diverse and eclectic practice. Following a successful large scale out-door sculpture installation earlier this year, The Light Turned Flimsy will show paintings that are a continuing part of the evolving narrative of The Tower Tribe.
For some years Crombie has been interested in creating work that fits together in a cumulative way and allows a narrative or mythology to gradually unfold. This mythology lives within the work and is intertwined with the process by which it comes to life. A number of processes are employed which include painting, assembling, drawing, animation and sculpture. All these different ways of working allow for serendipitous connections to happen encouraging story lines that are sometimes conceived but often accidental.
The Light Turned Flimsy exhibits a group of paintings, which depict warrior/conjuror characters that belong to a tribe who are at the moment loosely called the Tower Tribe. They are an invented community that due to their itinerant nature dream of constructing a stabilising monument, or tower, that will route them to a specific space. With this in mind they continue to move around the world searching for the best site. They are not a constant group and in different eras they reinvent themselves.
Perhaps responding to the artist’s own family history the characters often appear as refugees, perhaps escaping from disaster, or perhaps conjuring a new world. This project allows a nuanced exploration of ideas around transience, the nature of time and the significance of ancestry
