Exer Thurston
they/them
Columbus, OH, USA
Exer Thurston (they/them) is a maker based in the Midwestern United States. They work in a variety of media including but not limited to glass, ceramics, fiber, and metal. Thurston was awarded a full scholarship to attend The Ohio State University and graduated with a BA in Studio Art in May 2023. They received an Undergraduate Research Libraries Fellowship while completing their degree. Additionally, they worked as a contingent preparator at the Wexner Center of the Arts and as a technical intern at the Sherman Studio Art Center on Ohio State’s Campus. They received a Summer Fellowship at Pilchuck Glass School in the summer of 2023 and have participated in workshops at Penland School of Craft and Pittsburgh Glass Center. They recently completed the glass internship at STARworks in Star, North Carolina and now focus on their studio practice.
“My research lately is concerned with the sincerity of an object; what is it that gives an object presence, what makes something seem alive? I am exploring these questions through manipulation of surface, studying the interactions between different materials and textures. I too have been concerned with the idea of optics; how does form influence perception? How does the contact of disparate material conditions change the character of an object? The unexpected can occur within convergence of forms and surfaces, upending our expectations. It is both the process and repercussion of these interactions that I explore in my work.”
How does your work relate to the theme transformation— How does the work translate joy into strength?
"Something I have always struggled with as a queer person is the concept of optics. How do I present myself in order to be taken seriously? Why do I need to? I have definitely struggled with feeling that I was not properly engaging with the popular image of queerness. I have always focused on optics, both when I chose to engage, but also when I strained against the concept. My own form has always been at the forefront of my experience as a queer person. I suppose this condition is in part what lead me to my interest in the form of objects and the limitations of the formalist lens. A formalist analysis my queer body ignores my character, my presence, my condition, much like a formalist analysis ignores these qualities in an artwork. I have recently in my research been chewing on what I have titled “the sincerity of the object,” a quality of an object ignored in a purely formalist analysis. This is something I have been working to define and identify through my studio practice.
The casting process is, to me, a definitive experience of transformation. An object assigned the role of the positive is used to form a mold which subsequently creates a wax positive to echo the original object. This wax becomes the hollow of another mold and is then melted away, leaving a void to be filled with glass. This mold is chipped away to reveal the final positive. Recently, I have started further manipulating the surfaces of the castings, exploring how additional materials and textures transform the quality and form of the object. While the optics of the object may shift, there is still some presence of the original positive inside. This emotional index is what I seek to define and explore in my work, interested equally in what changes and what remains static. This piece in particular is changed by its surface manipulation. The glass, a cold and unyielding material, becomes soft and manipulatable against the wooden spikes."
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“Labor is a very important part of my practice and I and find repetitive, long form processes to be grounding. This casting is part of an in-process series exploring form and surface. The form was created as a type of automatic drawing. I sculpted a series of forms in clay, allowing my mind to wander while producing them. These forms were then cast in plaster, and waxes were pulled from these molds. The waxes each received different surface treatments, some given spikes, others dimples, and still others were given bumps. These waxes were then used to create plaster silica molds for glass casting. The glass form of this piece is hot casted, a process that requires a team of four or more glass workers. The communal nature of glass is what initially drew me to the material, and I generally prefer to hot cast as it engages the high energy of the hot shop. Following the demolding the casts are coldworked and polished. The surface of this casting was then drilled into to create a number of holes. These holes were then filled with spikes. The wooden spikes are toothpicks from a Diamond brand box of 800 toothpicks from 2005 that has faded to the most attractive shade of pink I have ever seen. The surface treatments this piece received both as a wax positive and glass one explore the interactions of hard and soft forms. The kiki and bouba effect describes our tendency as humans to ascribe certain speech sounds to particular shapes; kiki to pointed forms and bouba to rounded ones. I am greatly interested in the results when these two types of forms interact.”
"Relational Object", Hot cast glass, toothpicks, 5.5" x 3" x 5.5", 2024