ABOUT
   Thompson’s work as a mixed media sculptor is informed by her personal experiences being legally blind and a part of the invisible disability community. In her practice she uses a process of molding and casting in nontraditional fine arts materials to create multi-sensory performative displays. She experiments in transitory materials such as wax, gelatin, and glycerin soap. Thompson’s work focuses on research into disability aesthetics and methods of self-care, which informs the creation of a crip visual mythos. For example, she reflects her own anxieties existing under surveillance from the able-bodied through the assemblage of miniature objects. The disabled body/mind is regularly confronted with the demand to conform or just disappear, placing undue pressure to uphold standards of beauty, wellness, and productivity. She chooses to push back on that narrative and promote the value of expanding expressions of “human variation” within her production process.

   There is a level of discomfort Thompson wants to inflict on the fully visual viewer of her work. For example, in cases where she uses monochromatic and repetitive collection she forces an intimate viewing experience. Engagement like that is similarly required for her semi-translucent casts. Sculptures such as “Sleeping Beauty Left Alone” present the opportunity to expand beyond the visual with tactile and aromatic elements. Thompson invites her audience to activate and manipulate its surfaces to become an imprint in the life of the object. In all these instances the onus is on the viewer to treat her representations of the body with care and empathy.

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