Soil Thornton
Flagged Identity (4), 2021 Archival pigment prints of chips from active and inactive bank cards, found photographs, mirror-polished stainless steel and white gold leaf126,4 × 122,6 × 5,7 cm
About the work
Flagged Identity (4) takes as its point of departure an asymmetrical mirror with an almost abstract appearance. On closer inspection, the rectangular elements reveal themselves as images of bank-card chips: tiny carriers of personal and institutional identification. One photograph also depicts a person whose image has been partially scratched away, literally disrupting their identity. The mirror draws visitors directly into the work: as we look at the images, we also see ourselves. Thornton thus raises questions about how identity is constructed, recorded, traded and valued within social and economic systems.
In this work, the bank-card chip is more than a familiar technological detail. It links an individual to financial data and institutional systems, becoming a small but potent symbol of the way identity is encoded. Thornton places these images alongside found photographs and a reflective surface. Different forms of identification are consequently brought into confrontation: what a system records about someone, what a photograph reveals, and what a person sees when looking in the mirror. The title Flagged Identity emphasises that identity is not only personal, but can also be marked, categorised or ‘flagged’ by external structures.
Soil Thornton
° 1990 in Brooklyn, New York. Lives and works in New York.
Soil Thornton is a non-binary artist working across painting, sculpture, photography and installation. Thornton examines structures, norms, power relations and the mechanisms through which personal and professional identities are constructed. The works rarely offer a single, definitive answer; instead, they deliberately leave ideas open and unresolved. In 2023, Thornton presented a major solo exhibition at the Vienna Secession.
Thornton’s practice is grounded in the fluidity of identity and the multiplicity of possible interpretations. The artist resists unambiguous labels and the idea that an artwork should communicate only one message. In addition to painting and sculpture, Thornton uses photography and installation. Works are often arranged within exhibitions so that the architecture and the visitor’s position also become part of their meaning.