Thomas Brennan

Within my art practice over the past 40 years I have maintained two main threads. The first thread is my performance work which grew out of a poetry practice and over time has become an expression through dance and visual theater. I perform alone and with collaborators. I am interested in the power of ordinary rituals to express the unknown and absurd and in exploring how the body, specifically the disabled body, can express ever more complex subtleties. I adhere to the following: Wielding forms of embodiment like weapons, a disabled artist can and should embrace the discomfort they have so often witnessed in their presence, and to push through to a different way of seeing social interaction. Beyond the polite- the cruel and its intensities become a vibrant if problematic option. The second thread is my assemblage/collage/painting exploration which has until recently been both prolific and quietly personal. This visual work is an intuitive mission to express the inherent tension of our beautiful human fragility. Each work is a process of distilled time. I hope to explore both of these paths over the coming years.