Redford's 'Intruders of the Future' juxtaposes a glamorous bathing couple with the burning wreckage of what looks like an oil rig
Torrence Redford, from Kingsport, Tennessee, is a collage artist who explores his inner world through his art.
“I would describe the style of my collage work as a controlled balancing act of unrelated elements arranged into a surreal amalgam of off-kilter precision. Creating collage is a way for me to correlate, synthesize and deviate my inner world feelings to my outer world experiences allowing me to further explore, process and present difficult emotions and worldly concerns. My work is more about drawing attention to subject matter rather than making a statement. Certain themes can recur across my work, but each piece has its own unique focus. Themes can be weighty, but a sense of humor is usually lurking.
“Much of my inspiration comes from paying attention to what lies outside the spotlight, considering the overlooked and exploring fringe elements. Also inspiring is being receptive to incoming information or taking on a challenge of limitations. And there are times when simply turning something upside down or backwards finds hidden revelations. Influences are many but range from family and friends to established and unknown artists,” he says.
Redford has two collages in the “From These Hills” exhibit.
“My collages are sourced from unrelated books and magazines. I first make a deliberate search for an anchor-image. From there further exploration is fueled by free association. Initially, I have no pre-set theme in mind and stay open to unexpected possibilities. People, landscape, animals, objects are all fair game. Once the images are chosen, thematic narratives emerge from their arrangement. While each piece has a backstory and is a complete picture, there is no hard finish. This allows the viewer to have a passive contemplation following the lede of the title and the lead of the composition, or they can connect the dots presented to create more personalized meaning. That being said...
“I do have a personal theme for the ‘Miserable Optimist.’ It represents my experience being an artist and making art. Here, I see myself as this lone machete-wielding figure still covered in the filth of mundane reality harvesting a piece of creativity in a field of imagination. The harvest will be an artifact of controlled chaos, a trophy claiming temporary victory over my own mortal limitations.
“’Intruders of the Future’ considers the possible consequences of willful ignorance and disregard. Humanity’s very existence is at stake. Even the sun, a threatening life-giver, is a terrifying spectator as it sets. Bets are: who will burn up the earth first? The sun or humankind? But who are the intruders in this tableau? For me, it is the beachgoers blithely enjoying their still-remaining paradise like a veritable anti-Adam and anti-Eve. Heralds of a guaranteed Armageddon for those humans yet-to-be,” Redford says.
Redford graduated from the University of Tennessee. Then he enrolled in art courses on a whim. This led to him earning a BFA from the California institute of Arts and a post-baccalaureate from the San Francisco Art Institute. His concentration was photography, but collage has emerged as his primary art form.
“For two years, I stopped dreaming. In fact, I barely slept at all. Lacking the benefits of deep-sleep dreaming, even thinking about creating art became difficult while crushing daytime somnolence made it impossible.
“Corrective surgery eventually brought normal sleep and dreaming, but previous artistic pursuits lagged. During an art workshop, the instructor presented materials for a collage project. And that was that. Collaging not only became a way to fast-track my creativity, but my primary art practice. All the enjoyable surrealism of denied REM sleep could now be reverse engineered into a conscious form of art creation.
“Creativity is a constant in our lives. There is no role to it, it just is, and we just do it. Ideally, creativity should be in service to the best well-being of ourselves, others and the world-at-large,” he says.
His artwork has been in group shows at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, the Rosemond-Felson Gallery in Los Angeles, the Angstrom Gallery in Dallas, the Chelsea Gallery in New York, and the A-1 Art Space and Gallery 1010 in Knoxville, with a solo exhibition at the California Institute of the Arts and a forthcoming solo show at the William King Museum of Art in January 2023. He’s also had work published in the University of Tennessee’s literary art publication, The Phoenix, and video work aired on Knoxville’s long-retired Cable Access video art show, Corrosive Material.
