Statement About the Artist

Thornhill's work is non-conceptual, non-cerebral, not concerned to comment on trends in modern art and has nothing to do with sophisticated technologies. For him, Sculpture is primarily about Mass. He argues that a sense of Mass suffused our earliest experiences and that the imprint of Mass on our awareness, especially in the context of the human figure is infinitely more telling than the naming of parts. His search is for figurative statements which because massive in quality are sculptural in essence.

During his forty odd years as a sculptor always working in clay he has devised building procedures which dispense with internal armatures and therefore with the need to preconceive the work in hand. His sculptures evolve through a prolonged dialogue with his medium, which enables him to draw on his deepest resources and faithfully to transplant images from the unconscious to the clay (perhaps this gives vitality and monumental power to the work).

His work is a celebration of the search for self-discovery and for a rooted sense of personal autonomy. Its reference is to the inner rather than the external world.