The exhibition includes a film, Time Stau, and two series of paintings, At Last…Rest and Panic in the Chalk Caves. Zefrey Throwell’s father died of a meth overdose 6 years ago, and this close personal experience motivated Throwell to produce art relating to the drug.
In the painting series, At Last…Rest, Throwell uses his father’s ashes, still saturated with remnants of the drug that prematurely ended his life, to create paintings that document his father’s life throughout its various stages. The images are ethereal and stunning, showing portraits of Douglas Throwell’s quotidian life.
Time Stau, created in collaboration with fellow artist Dirk Skreber, follows the lives of a young couple battling meth addiction. The film depicts their downward spiral as the drug completely takes possession of their lives. The two attempt to travel time between Cologne and Dueren while encased in the ruins of a burned out trailer. The film was commissioned by the Leopold Hoesch Museum for the exhibition Sucked Up in the Devil’s Bed, summer 2012. Time Stau is gritty, sumptuous and thought provoking.
The second series of paintings, for which the exhibition is titled, are created using film stills from Time Stau. Throwell silkscreens images on patterned canvas and then paints oil and acrylic paint in gestural, expressive strokes. The result seems to simultaneously offer a window into the lives of those possessed by meth and obscure the exact details as surely as the drug does.
GREAT WORKS...I like the last artwork...It's Cool!
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