KHI-LEE THORPE

Khi-Lee Thorpe
Home
26.04.17 – 13.04.17

Khi-Lee Thorpe’s installation of discarded doors reclaims redundant objects of domesticity through gestural mark making. Doors function both as a boundary and as a passageway between public and private space. They separate interior from exterior, sealing off areas to create shelter and safety, while simultaneously obstructing them.

Thorpe sourced the recycled doors for her paintings on eBay and gumtree from private homes, often meeting the families and learning about their individual stories. By employing the doors as a surface and structural ground for her paintings, she transforms them from being objects that once had a functional purpose within a domestic narrative, into surfaces of painted abstraction. Thorpe’s decision to mark the surface of these doors with her abstracted paint application suggest a tension between experimentations of color, form and surface materials, and her reflections on concepts of ‘home and homelessness’.

Khi-Lee Thorpe is a descendant of the Worimi people of the Mid North Coast of NSW. Thorpe recently completed a Masters of Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Art. ‘Home’ is a continuation of her postgraduate work.

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