Empire
Robert Tombs – 2011
As a site-specific painted installation, Empire acknowledges ‘acts of presentation’ as wholly within the overarching context of power and death.
Modern Fuel presents, in its State of Flux Gallery, a new painting installation by Robert Tombs (Ottawa, ON). Empire juxtaposes nine unique 1’ x 8’ striped colour-field paintings on canvas with one 1’ x 9’ stripe of gold leaf and tar applied directly on the gallery wall. The colours chosen for these stripes are largely derived from memory, to the extent that personally significant colour impressions can be reconstituted. A catalogue for “The Morality of Paint: Erfurt Window” will be launched the night of the opening reception for Empire.
About the Artist
Robert Tombs—
Robert Tombs is a graphic designer and visual artist living in Ottawa, Ontario. His award-winning print-based collaborations with artists, art galleries and academic presses are in numerous collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Columbia University, Yale University, and Deutsche Bücheri Leipzig. As a visual artist, his recent work includes Brigus Mark (2007) which comprised the direct application of four litres of black marine enamel paint onto an exposed slab of siltsone overlooking Brigus harbour, Newfoundland; and Erfurt Window (2008), the painted obfuscation of a communist-era bookstore’s showcase windows in Erfurt, Germany.