Synthesis - colour sculptures that evoke the deep by Tom Price

I love everything about these beautiful sculptures from Tom Price. The colours produced have such depth, like exploring the depths of the ocean or a corner of the galaxy. 

He starts by considering his materials. Selecting two contrasting components, resin and tar, one black and heavy the other clear and liquid, he allows them to wrestle it out to become a single entity. 

In Synthesis, his new body of work exhibited in Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City which is running until January 2015, Price is interested in the untapped potential of familiar materials, and encourages them to react in unfamiliar ways. 

What happens is the tar and resin vie for space. The tar heats and expands searching for gaps and routes and as it spreads depths of colour come forth and something quite special is created. Tom Price told Yellow Trace:

"I was aware of the tendency for resin to form small fractures when mixed incorrectly, but what we uncovered went well beyond what I had seen before. Petal-like fractures revealed in early tests, although very beautiful, were a little too pretty and pristine by themselves so I set about looking for a material that could react with the resin and push the process a step further. I was drawn to the idea of introducing tar, as the two elements seemed so diametrically opposed in material terms – one a water clear liquid that sets hard and transparent; the other a densely black sticky semi-solid. The marriage of the two was phenomenal: Heat from the curing resin causes the tar to melt, but as the resin at this point is almost solid, the tar has very little room to expand. As cracks and fissures form within the setting resin liquid tar rushes to claim any available space."

The colours are just gorgeous. I also like the unpredictability of what is produced. You can read more over at the Yellow Trace blog.