Created By
William Tong
Mixed media sculpture
Curator
Luke Chapman
Tong's work in the Temphouse series offers a compelling exploration of discarded materials and their transformative potential. "Thorny Silver Axe" stands as a notable example of this approach, using a computer mainframe as the structural foundation for a new artistic expression. The piece effectively connects digital obsolescence with creative rebirth. By repurposing technological remnants alongside nautical elements like frayed ropes and tattered sails, Tong creates something that feels both post-apocalyptic and deeply human—a synthesis of the technological and primal. The title "Thorny Silver Axe" works on multiple levels. The axe represents the creative-destructive process of repurposing, while "silver" evokes technology's faded promise, and "thorny" suggests the uncomfortable realities of waste and obsolescence that we often prefer to ignore. What makes this work particularly resonant is how it positions these discarded objects as vessels for new meaning. Rather than mere commentary on consumption, Tong offers a constructive vision—finding poetry in what others have abandoned and building something that connects our digital present with more elemental human concerns of adaptation and survival.
Thorny Silver Axe' stands as a poignant artifact from Tong's Temphouse cycle, a series deeply engaged with themes of obsolescence, technological reincarnation, and the enduring spirit of resourcefulness in the face of entropy. Constructed primarily from the skeletal remains of a computer mainframe chassis, the sculpture presents a multi-tiered, quasi-architectural form. The textures are raw, almost violently honest: corroded metal, frayed ropes binding disparate elements, tattered canvas sails catching phantom winds. There's a palpable tension between the rigid geometry of the original machine and the organic decay that now claims it. Perforated metal sheets cast shadows that dance like half-remembered code, while the overall structure evokes both a derelict vessel and a precarious, improvised dwelling. The "axe" of the title suggests a primal, almost violent act of repurposing, transforming discarded technology into a symbol of survival and adaptation. The silver, if glimpsed beneath the decay, hints at a lost promise of technological utopia, now reclaimed by the grit and grime of lived experience. This is not mere assemblage; it's a requiem for the digital age, sung in rust and rope.
Created By
William Tong
60 x 40 cm | 24 x 16 in
15 cm | 6 in
2020
