Artist profile - Terence Birch

Banner image: Terence Birch – Untitled

Website:  www.tbirchartist.wordpress.com

Affiliation with Shape: Successful recipient of the 2018 Adam Reynolds Memorial Busary

Artist Statement  

In Terence Birch’s work, elements of class structure, consumer desire and aesthetic prejudice are explored via strategies of restriction, hindrance and limitation. Through puns and word associations, the assemblage of disparate materials and media, and the deliberate placement of ‘obstacles’ or diversions against the reception of the viewer, the overriding lack of certainty in his juxtapositions produces a palpable sense of anxiety.

A triptych of large abstract paintings hanging on a blue wall. The two on either side are colourful and look like marbled paper; the central is white with illegible black text on it
Terence Birch - 'Mechanized Tail', 2012

In an installation of works created around the Olympic equestrian events at Greenwich Park, London, Birch deployed paintings, relief sculptures and readymade objects to challenge and affect the navigation of the viewer. The diversity of materials and idiosyncrasy of their display guided spectators into a trajectory that echoed the gait of the horses and the course of the arena. Through subtle strategies of up-ended canvases, allusive text and coded iconography, gallery visitors enacted a routine imbued with sensations of disembodiment and re-orientation.

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