Tim Whiten

Suspend

January 17, 2019 – February 16, 2019

Olga Korper Gallery presents Suspend, a new series of work by multidimensional multi-media artist, Tim Whiten. Since the 1960s, Tim has blended astrology, history, fur, rock, blood and bone into his own personal brand of magic.

Working frequently with glass, in previous exhibitions Tim has cast familiar items from the home – a rolling pin, an umbrella, a tricycle, a rocking horse – icons of comfort and play or tools that have been captured in spirit and eternalized in a new medium.

Taking the lead from Shamans who would sweep demons out of the corners of houses in their charge, between 1998 and 2007 Tim cast a series of brooms in glass. A broom stands sentinel in the corner of a space, emitting a ghostly light and dispatching bad luck.

By casting these tools, Tim removes them from their purpose in the physical world, but it’s possible to imagine they have been given a new purpose in the spiritual one. Like Plato’s world of forms, or the Velveteen rabbit, the pieces somehow become more real, stripped down to their very essence, their purest form.

With Suspend, Tim returns to his earlier work, bringing in a rich use of earthy materials – horns, skulls, leather, and teeth – to construct new tools with which one would navigate the afterlife. Pieces for protection, ascension, and discovery, there’s no doubt the room is full of spells.