Thomas Roach

In the Off Space, Thomas Roach presents Wheatstone Stereoscope. Made with graphite, carbon, magazine pages and silkscreen, these frank constructions treat a mélange of mass-media images as text and present a disambiguated and conversely idiosyncratic Modern language. Roach avoids composition by presenting his pictures in the middle of larger standardized supports, a strategy that makes his works appear similar—as simple commodities. The title of the exhibition, Wheatstone Stereoscope, refers to an early optical device designed by Charles Wheatstone and to Roach’s project overall: the reproduction of mass-media images in parts, presentations of which tease at significance and coerce viewers into acknowledging their part in creating meaning.