☞ insta tom
“The Intermediary”
Phantasmal figures recline by a pond's edge, overlooking the water teeming with animals, fairies, humans, ghosts, and ghouls. Intrigued by movement beneath the surface, a sense of impending danger unfolds. Positioned above the viewer, these spectral beings, immune to drowning, wield power, their vulnerability elusive. As intermediaries, they beckon contemplation on positioning in a mythical world offering choices.
These beings, reminiscent of our queer ancestors, weave a lost tale buried in history's shadows. Forests, grown from their graves, birthed life, concealed in roots. Fresh water sprouted, quenching oblivious bystanders' thirst. An enigmatic narrative emerges, the drawings dictating roles, challenging binary norms.
Placing the visitor beneath the water implies danger, an inevitable death sentence willingly embraced in the enchanted gallery space. Alive thoughts pulsate more than those gazing upward. Transformative water, fluid and dynamic, births life while symbolizing offerings—hair, knives, teeth—a reflection in the water granting access to the antipode.
Tom Hallet's solo exhibition at Pizza gallery invites visitors into a crystalline pond, where naiads, fairies, ghosts, and demons converge on high banks to drink and cool off. Deviously locking eyes, these beings observe, morph, and shift, emitting warning signals. As guests, visitors are welcomed but remain untouched.
The exhibition invokes a sense of offerings, echoing through time, manifesting in sacrifices, imprints of our physical world. Through water's fluidity, the exhibition emphasizes transformation, evolution, and the delicate balance between the seen and the unseen.
