Land, Solitude & Hallucinations:
Interview with Thomas Allen

Situated at the threshold between abstraction and figuration, Thomas Allen’s meticulously rendered dreamscapes evoke an experience of hypnagogia – the transitional period between wakefulness and sleep. The entrancing rhythm of his repetitive mark-making, like a tally, traces the passage of time – time that is conspicuously layered into his works.  

 

Human forms often dissolve into shimmering pattern, blurring the boundary between the body and its environment. Allen is also preoccupied with the interplay between external landscapes and our internal worlds – for instance, how our relationship with the land is mediated through desire and modes of consumption. 

 

Living and working in the UK, Allen’s practice is predominantly studio-based, though it has also involved large-scale site-specific projects comprising installation, performance and audience participation. The conceptual thinking behind Allen’s artwork is informed by sociological theory (in which he has a degree) and underpinned by research into fields as diverse as renaissance foraging practices to contemporary supermarket food packaging. 

 

Allen’s work has won several awards for his artworks, most recently the Figurative Art Now first prize.