Joanne Tatham & Tom O'Sullivan

Think, Think Thingamajig; what do you represent?

Joanne Tatham & Tom O'Sullivan
Think, Think Thingamajig; what do you represent? 2006 © The artists

Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan have worked collaboratively since 1995 making enigmatic images, sculptural objects and installations. The objects regularly resemble esoteric props from an avantgarde play and are designed to inhabit a range of scenarios activating their surroundings and cajoling the viewer into participating in an absurd kind of theatre.

Tatham and O’Sullivan regularly re-stage and rework imagery and objects from their practice in a variety of different formats. Think, Think Thingamajig; what do you represent? 2006 , their new work for Art Now, is a live recreation of one in a series of drawings in which sculptural objects interact with top-hatted, be-suited figures. In the drawing, Think, Think Thingamajig, think 2005, the Think Thingamajig – a cube decorated with pink diamonds against a black background which first appeared as a ceramic sculpture in 2003 – becomes a costume sported by a gentleman who sits slumped in thoughtful contemplation. By translating the scene into a piece of living sculpture in the gallery Tatham and O’Sullivan enable image, object and event to coalesce.