Andrew Thompson

“Where ya’ headed, Stranger?”, 2006
Materials pulled from the trash, the studio floor, previous artworks, and adhesives.

When driving to Milwaukee, my girlfriend and I hit a deer outside of Kalamazoo. The deer didn’t die right away, so we had to wait for the sheriff to arrive to end the deer’s life. While waiting for the police, an off-duty fire marshal stopped by and offered to beat the deer to death with his flashlight. Luckily, he did not have the large flashlight with him. This situation, the moment before the sheriff pulls the trigger of his shotgun, is reconstructed through found materials and adhesives. These discarded and unwanted materials are tossed together to create some facsimile of real events from the past. These constructions become hardened and steadfast with glue. At times, memory and one’s psyche are reminiscent of this proposed process, inaccurate articles and residue of something from the past that exists in place of fact. Memories can be unlooked-for and undesirable, yet ever present. What if the things we threw away were as persistent as memory?

Andrew Thompson grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and received his BFA in Sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute. Thompson moved from Cowtown to Motown to receive his MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Since graduating, Andrew works as a collaborator with the Gallery Project in Ann Arbor as graphic designer and curator. Andrew teaches art at University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Oakland Community College and currently resides in Detroit, MI.