TRANSLUCENCES OF LIGHT AND HISTORY IN TOM PALMER'S ALABASTER SCULPTURE

The inner force of contemporary art and design lies in their capacity to read and reinterpret millenary traditions. Embracing these powerful languages, KALPA Galleries include within their historical interiors a selection of artworks with forms and materials that rediscover ancient expressions of art and write new visual narratives.

We welcome into our exhibitions British artist and designer Tom Palmer’s series in translucent alabaster The Vault Vessels, inspired by the soaring forms of the Gothic vaulted architecture of Medieval England. Working with a wide range of creative languages and materials, such as carved wood, sculpted alabaster and cast pewter, Palmer's creative research is overall informed by Medieval and Renaissance European culture and iconography, as well as by Japanese art and philosophy.

"Alabaster lends itself exceptionally well to interpreting the sensibility and 'vis formativa' of our times. Precisely because of its ambiguity, between lapidary hardness and waxy softness, between glassy transparency and leaden opacity, alabaster allows the artist to give life to objects where the suggestion of the informal, of the surreal, even of a re-interpreted and redeemed Kitsch, manifests itself." 

Presenting The Vault Vessels series in Volterra - still one of the undiscussed capitals of alabaster - implicitly draws a significative link between different lands and narrates a fascinating story of the spread and use of this stone throughout the centuries and across Europe. On the one hand, alabaster is a symbol of the geographical area between Volterra and the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the other, it was a common material used for sculptures, panels for altarpieces, and free-standing decorative objects in England. Exploring this lost craft tradition, Palmer abstracts old symbols of devotion, rendering them in new pure and minimalist art objects made in delicate and translucent stone. 

Oscillating between lights and reflections, concave and convex surfaces, The Vault Vessels encompass both the lightness and strength of the complex architecture of vaulted systems, exploring the relationships between geometry and abstraction, and the form and function of the object itself. Their form recalls some of the key elements in Romanesque-Gothic religious architecture, such as the archetypal pointed arches and junctions, the alternation of lines and nuances, and above all the energetic movement upward. As in a play of cross-references, all these features are evoked in the octagonal plan of the thirteenth-century Baptistery of Volterra with its characteristic black and white polychrome outside.

“My work is driven by twin fascinations of texture and translucency: exploring these two almost opposing qualities through hand carving and advanced casting, I push the possibilities of materials and techniques to their limit.” 

The final dimensions of these vessels are in many ways dictated by the shape of the natural quarried stone. During the carving process, the artist is in constant dialogue with the piece, as the natural qualities and features of the stone are slowly revealed. Because of the malleability and translucency of the material itself, alabaster is particularly well suited to render evocative details and dramatic earth inclusions, as well as to indulge the creative vision of the sculptor. After roughing out the form of the vessel with block saws and grinders, Palmer refines each corner and curve with traditional Italian Miliani and Japanese Shinto rasps.

In between the space of fine and decorative art, Tom Palmer’s corpus of work includes wall art pieces, designed furniture and objects, as well as sculptures and dividing panels. Palmer began his career in 2013 and, thanks to this interdisciplinary and fluidity in art production, he developed specific artworks and objects for many commissioned projects on a more architectural scale for both private and industry clients. Palmer has been recently included in the prestigious Homo Faber Guide of Craftsmanship compiled by the Michelangelo Foundation of Venice; the piece entitled Vault Vessel (Serenissima), in particular, was selected for the 2022 Homo Faber Venice Biennale.

Photos of Tom Palmer at his studio: courtesy of the Artist

Photos of Volterra and  the artworks at KALPA Galleries: Olga Niescier

Quotes from: Gillo Dorfles and Tom Palmer

KALPA INSTAGRAM