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www.louisethomas.org My current work is an exploration of tourist space both past and present. I started this year by visiting a distinct group of buildings collectively known as Colonia along the north coastlines of Italy. These children’s holiday camps sprung up in a short window of time between 1929 and the out break of the war. This trip has provided a pool of resources that has fed into my painting throughout this year. This pool has enabled me to perform my own archeology through the language of paint to explore their memorial qualities and history. Moving away from the saturated history of the Italian fascists I have started to look at other examples of resort architecture. I work in a hotel and I have collected many recommended hotel brochures from the bedrooms. My most recent paintings have been produced through the collection and re-assemblage of these holiday brochures. It is the innate banality of the holiday resort that fascinates me. I am influenced directly by the brochures. There are no traces of the past nor are their signs of the future. They are buildings firmly consecrated in the present. Whereas the Italian camps are monuments to the future, motels are non-places for an ephemeral culture. To make my initial studies I use bright childr... [ Read all ]