With his meticulously-made collages, sculptures and installations, David Thorpe (born 1972, London, UK) designs parallel worlds of enchanting beauty.
In his work, Thorpe is concerned with the relationship between objects and their creators, and particularly interested in the role of craftsmanship and labor in handmade art. Additionally, Thorpe plays with various associations in his work, such as with his references to European Romanticism, the Arts and Crafts movement, but also utopian cults, religious leaders and reform movements of the sixteenth century to the present (source: Saatchi).
Although Thorpe was trained as a painter and photographer, he focuses largely on creating collages and installations. In his labor-intensive work, he often uses paper, but other materials such as glass, stone and leather are favored by this artist. The collages form dramatic, fantastic images, based on the rugged American West. In these, Thorpe places futuristic buildings, such as bunkers and apartment blocks, which radiate both solitude and self-sufficiency in these wildernesses (source: Worcester Art, 2006).