Thomas Hawson

I make things to make sense of the world. Using different basic making traditions, I explore our relationship with nature. By physically sourcing my own materials from the landscape and reinventing forgotten making traditions, I want to delve deep into the cultural contexts of places and people, through making. From this mostly physical and visual research I like to find ways to use these materials and basic making practices to make symbolic artifacts that have meaning for the present day. I often make these artifacts as props to create happenings or performances. I then document these happenings and sometimes the making of the artifacts themselves with photography and drawing. I use this documentary drawing and photography to make montage and dioramas and all together as a reflective tool. My ambition is to mediate between humanity and nature and demonstrate an optimistic and fruitful future for both.