thom vernon is a multidisciplinary artist. His work integrates materialities that attempt to poeticize the unspeakable: living with HIV and trauma since 1987. His primary materials include copper, steel, paper, found text, wood, stone, polymer and plastic. Having saved every anti-retroviral pill bottle since he began medication more than a decade ago, most of his pieces, like his life, are built upon these plastic companions. Each burnt match signals an, at least, 15-minute “sitting practice” session in which thom practices staying present. The “brut” quality of much of his visual work testifies to the paradoxical tension of thriving with HIV in conditions of stigma, shame, guilt, and terror. In spite of their seeming static state, these works employ performance and compositional techniques such as tempo, repetition, shape, architecture, and spatiality. Although titled, they are purposefully ambiguous, asking only to be witnessed. thom has a long career as a film/TV/theatre actor, novelist, educator, and social justice advocate. Learn more at thomvernon.com