At what temperature is steel mouldable like clay? For Jeremy Thomas, 1,500 degrees are enough, along with a paradox which is just as hot: metal can be moulded with a gust of air.
In his forge just outside Santa Fe, in Mexico, Thomas produces steel installations with a very strange technique: by injecting pressurised air into incandescent metal shapes, previously assembled with a welder.
Thus the cold and industrial steel which we are accustomed to seeing takes on warm, organic forms, filled with life, where everyone can see different outlines and reflections amid the folds, ridges and creases.
Do not brand Thomas with the label of "artist", a word which in contemporary society is increasingly associated to pop culture, market and trends. He prefers to be considered an inventor of things, a forger who responds to an innate need: to create.
And to think that Thomas (who now teaches at the Santa Fe School of Art) tried to undertake an artistic career as a painter. Then one day, while moving home, he was burgled and all his work and tools were stolen. Today, perhaps, his sculptures should thank that burglar.
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