Christopher Thomas Ford

Newsprint is often hung in storefronts as businesses close or transition in and out of a space. The Dorchester studio space I have moved into has been recently remodeled from an uninhabited office space to an artist space. I clipped these newspaper advertisements and adhered them to the window of my new studio where they were left to yellow and fade for days, weeks, and months. I then rephotographed the images on the interior the walls of the studio space and on top of a light box.

The title of this series of images A2-A26 refers to their source the A section of the New York Times print edition. This section is the most expensive ad space in the paper. The brands that use this space are known as "luxury" brands. The design of the advertisements is clean, symmetrical, and austere connoting a sense of timelessness (in fact the words classic and timeless are used in many of the advertisements).  Yet in this form, newsprint, the images are fragile and are married to a specific time. The specificity of the headlines and the verso images are in conflict and are an unintended commentary on the advertisements. Through a simple act of juxtaposition and through highlighting the ephemeral nature of material, this work attempts to make transient that which portends to be timeless.

2013-ongoing

Collage works made from vintage paper samples, images from 1960’s-1980’s design and photography periodicals, and photographic prints. The works are taped together with film masking (mylar) tape. 

2012. site specific performance,

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

performers: Siri Mortensen Grossman and Maria Molteni

The ICA Visitor Assistants are tasked with dual purpose of providing information on the museum's exhibits and programing and enforcing the institution's rules. In order to protect the the artwork and to better interact with museum visitors, VA's are stationed individually in the ICA's galleries. During museum hours, the VA's change galleries every half hour. This highly orchestrated process is known as the: rotation. During the rotation, when one VA enters a gallery the VA previously stationed in the gallery exits. The rotation gives the Visitor Assistants a very brief opportunity to interact with each other. On slow days in the museum, these brief encounters can be one of the only moments of contact with another person. During these moments Visitor Assistants tell each other jokes, console one another, or carry on a conversation. These interactions and dialogues, due to the circumstances of the job, have to be paused until the rotation begins again.
In Counter Rotation, two performers, dressed as Visitor Assistants, were inserted into the ICA's galleries during regular museum hours. These performer's locations matched the actual stations of the ICA's Visitor Assistants.  While in the galleries these performers executed a restrained series of movements that were inspired by postures and gestures of ICA Visitor assistants.  In contrast to the ICA's Visitors Assistants,  these performers rotated every eight minutes and in the opposite direction. During this counter rotation a rough narrative unfolded in reverse. This narrative centered on a personal disagreement between the two performer protagonists. To observers, these two people appear to be friends in the midst a very upsetting argument. The tension between these two people is exasperated by their inability, again due to the particular circumstances of their jobs, to be in the same room together.  
This piece was performed in the ICA's galleries on the morning of October 14, 2012. Counter Rotation was performed without the foreknowledge or consent of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston or the curators of this exhibition. Upon the polite request of the ICA's staff, the October 14th performance was stopped before completion. 

2013- ongoing

repeatedly sun-bleached 1980’s paper sample, masking tape, used photo paper box, store bought: “Rustic Lacquer Shelf and White Basic Brackets”, photographic print on aluminum, and audio cassette tape of a loved one sleeping

4/04/11-5/04/2011, sculpture and performance, dimensions variable.

During the above time frame, I attempted to check out as many as were available and as many as were allowed books with the word: freedom in the title from ten Boston libraries. These volumes were used to create a wall in the W. Van Alan Clark Jr. Library. At the height of the project over 500 titles were checked out.

-Christopher Thomas Ford, 2011

The scan prints are the results of choreographed interactions between various light sources and damaged flatbed scanners.

The images in "With Sympathy" are derived from thumbnail images on popular florist websites, (from the "with sympathy" section). The jpeg images were downloaded and subjected to different processes of degradation and interpolation and then printed on photographic paper.

2011. Performance, archival inkjet prints, and posters at the The Caturano & Company Art Gallery at Bentley University.

For "Who We Are What We Do: the Best Practices Way" artists Joanna Tam and Christopher Thomas Ford formed a collaborative art project named: Best Practices. The exhibition featured a Powerpoint presentation, stock photography inspired self-portraits, and two mission statement posters that appropriated segments of text from the mission statements of Fortune 500 companies and artist statements from artists featured in the Art21 series.