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Tom Volkaert at Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta

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Space entrance
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Installation view
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Tom Volkaert, A Flower For Nexus, 2018
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Installation view
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Tom Volkaert, This Is Gary, 2018
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Tom Volkaert, This Is Gary, 2018
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Tom Volkaert, This Is Gary, 2018
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Installation view
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Tom Volkaert, Hitching Post & Accessories, 2018
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Tom Volkaert, Hitching Post & Accessories, 2018
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Tom Volkaert, A Portrait of My Mom, 2018
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Installation view
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Installation view
This very space, right where you stand, a 9-year-old Tom Volkaert walked into The Fritchle Garage and secured a job as a breaker boy in 1898. It was the glory years of the “Automotive Age” and car parts for makers like Nash, Hudson, and American Motors were arriving daily in Atlanta via a 16-car train that would arrive from Milledgeville. These were rumbling, bumbling, bone-jarring contraptions: four-cylinders, standing seven feet tall, with 20-horsepower that allowed a breakneck speed of 25 miles per hour. They were glorious and hot damn Tom wanted to be a part.

Old Man Fritchle warned some uppity gibberish that it wouldn’t be easy. For $1.15 a day Tom would arrive in the deep dark of the early morning and leave after the sun went down for the night. Being below ground the light would only spill down the chute in the seconds between the manhole cover being pried up and impenetrable cloud of stale black dust hitting his eyes and nostrils like a brick of fire. His job was never ending. As soon as it would spill to his feet Tom had to grade the coal based on it impurities (sulfur), removing the undesirable slate pieces, and putting the rest in clean coal bins. For better agility he worked without gloves.

The opposite of upstairs, this basement is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Fritchle was a germophobe who demanded hot water from the sinks, meaning Tom had to continuously hustle shoveling the coal into the furnace. Tall for his age he stayed hunched over all day long. He covered his mouth with a dirty handkerchief, but still had respiratory issues. Every day was backbreaking. Attempting to wash himself clean would create a thin layer of sulfuric acid that burned his freckles off. Yet, Tom loved every minute of the job. Unlike most of his young friends who worked in large, noisy breaker rooms, stacked to the brim with kids missing fingers that were amputated by fast moving belts and sharp shards of slate. Here Tom was alone. This was his office. The furnace was his desk, and the shovel, his pen. Barely visible thru the dust he proudly hung a photo of his mother. Surrounded by bottomless concrete he was able to escape. He is a zealous provider for his family, a patriot helping build the cars that make America move. Tom wanted wind-burned eyeballs, the dull sound of wind, the type of speed that would take him and his anywhere but here.

23.10.18 — 15.12.18

Curated by Good Enough (Steffen Sornpao and Jordan Spurlin)

All images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Good Enough

Atlanta Contemporary

'ABSINTHE', Group Show Curated by PLAGUE at Smena, Kazan

'Pupila' by Elizabeth Burmann Littin at Two seven two gallery, Toronto

'Auxiliary Lights' by Kai Philip Trausenegger at Bildraum 07, Vienna

'Inferno' by Matthew Tully Dugan at Lomex, New York

'Зamok', Off-Site Group Project at dentistry Dr. Blumkin, Moscow

'Dog, No Leash', Group Show at Spazio Orr, Brescia

'Syllables in Heart' by Thomas Bremerstent at Salgshallen, Oslo

'Out-of-place artifact', Off-Site Project by Artem Briukhov in Birsk Fortress, Bi

'Gardening' by Daniel Drabek at Toni Areal, Zurich

'HALF TRUTHS', Group Show at Hackney Road, E2 8ET, London

'Unknown Unknowns' by Christian Roncea at West End, The Hague

'Thinking About Things That Are Thinking' by Nicolás Lamas at Meessen De Clercq,

‘Funny / Sad’, Group Show by Ian Bruner, Don Elektro & Halo, curated by Rhizome P

'Don’t Die', Group Show at No Gallery, New York

'Almost Begin' by Bronson Smillie at Afternoon Projects, Vancouver

'I'll Carry Your Heart's Gray Wing with a Trembling Hand to My Old Age', Group Sh

'hapy like a fly' by Clément Courgeon at Colette Mariana, Barcelona

'Fear of the Dark' by Jack Evans at Soup, London

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