Terence Birch

Terence studied at Goldsmiths at BA level followed by an MA in Painting at the RCA. He was the recipient of the 2018 Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary.

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

He-Man, how I copy your plastic body. Snagged in Prejudice against my reality. All my wishes compensating for the loss of perfection that can be perceived in disability. #artistwriting

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

@nicolalane3 @ShapeArts @PallantGallery Thanks Nicola!

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

“...Icaros...

...imaginative interpreter...

...What the body is denied the mind must achieve...

...in search of mines - feeling for death every foot. But it is death I have been writing about all this time...the only solution to this problem of how to be able to fly.” #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

@nicolalane3 Same here, they’re out of this world ;-)

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Family. Death.

“Paolozzi, the son of two Italian immigrants, worked at the family confectionery shop in the Scottish port of Leith. From an early age he collected cigarette cards and images in scrap albums, many of which he used in later work.”... #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Construction of identity in a fluid environment #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Living through others that reflect you (model of reality, of a limited reality), not truly facing yourself or acknowledging others.

“Who am I?” #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

It wasn’t his to do that. It was mine. And I clearly needed all the attention on my painting. I hated myself and having to smile for the camera.

Initials: made to face myself (too much attention on me)

Paintbrush: taking attention from my work (external me) #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

I didn’t even know those other children. I didn’t play with them, talk to them. I was angry because one boy put his paintbrush on my painting for the group photograph... #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

I wanted to be able to paint. Not be captured in time. Forced to pose. I guess I didn’t like myself very much then either.

I remember it being commented upon that I painted directly without needing to sketch out beforehand. #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Psychology (extreme emotions, techno-animism, breaking cycles) and philosophy. Struggling with form. Confidence, uncertainty. Language (myth, metaphor, signs, symbols, structures). Family. Death. Time. #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Outsider. Unconventional ideas and materials. Subjective experience.
Anxiety. Doubt (indecision). Consumerism (impulse/panic buying). Logic: what we can and cannot know (empirical phenomenon, grief). Double logic of prosthesis (self, other)... #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Riders.
Instructions (booklet).
Sons.
Sound (bicycle bell).
First, second (sons).
Change (forest into cottage).
Choke, breath.
Same (family likenesses).
Substituted (surrogate). #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Frame (bicycle frame, picture frame).
Teacher.
Size.
Ground.
Group.
Reconstructions (reframing).
Spokes.
Picture (family photograph).
Sun... #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Childhood. Memory. Identity. Family. Death.

What can you remember?
How did it happen?
Where was it?
What was I like?
How long did it take?
Were the photos taken on the same day? #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

“There’s no time limit, so you can use it as and when.” #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Man and the machine had a baby. That baby was me. I am the son of the machine. Artificial son.

Reframing the past... #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

Lost, not found object.

Reflectors: I don’t need to warn others I’m here. The responsibility should never have been mine to take on. It was a terrible accident.

Intellectualising, not connecting with my body/emotions. (Existential philosophers). #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

“...They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.” #ARMB

[Terence Birch @tbirchartist]

“...All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance...”... #ARMB