Liam Gillick - Tom Thumb's Mother

Signed and numbered edition of 20 (+ 10 a.p)

The work is a hand-enhanced print in an edition of 20. The image of Tom Thumb’s mother first appeared in the artist’s exhibition "The knot of which I speak cannot be knotted” at Gallery Baton in Seoul. There she appeared conjuring up an abstract form derived from the rational graphic works produced at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, Germany founded by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Otl Aicher and Max Bill in the 1950s. The English folk character Tom Thumb featured in various stories from the 16th Century onwards - notably ‘The History of Tom Thumbe’ of 1621. No bigger than his father’s thumb, Tom was born after his mother visited Merlin the Magician. As with later ‘fairy stories’ Tom Thumbs adventures lead him into conflict with fear, authority, family structure and various expressions of good and evil. Each of the prints has a new representation of the power of Tom Thumb’s mother. In this case each print has a unique whirlwind in colored pencil added to it. Abstraction as circling self-referential energy.