Grace/Graze(d)/Grief Complementary

SoiL Thornton explores themes of identity, power, and violence through sculpture, installation, photography, and film. Their work probes the tension between institutional structures and embodied experience, reflecting on how personal narratives intersect with broader social systems.

Grace/Graze(d)/Grief Complementary (2011–2018) is a video work shot with a fish-eye lens that follows the artist wandering through the deserted streets of New York at night. The figure moves hurriedly from kiosk to kiosk, pausing to inspect oblong paperweights typically used to hold stacks of newspapers down. These deliberate gestures take on a performative, almost ritualistic quality, imbuing the nocturnal journey with a sense of disquieting reverence.

The scene is interspersed with fleeting fragments from Thornton’s archive of personal video footage from cellular and flip video cameras overlaid by a pulsating, dystopian soundtrack that intensifies the work’s dissonant quality. Thornton here invites viewers to reflect on how meaning, politics, and embodied experience shape our daily lives, collapsing the boundaries between public and private spheres.