VHS
Hollis Brown ThorntonHollis Brown Thornton maps the physical weight of memory through the repetitive, ink-heavy lines of obsolete media. This piece renders a stack of VHS tapes with the precision of a technical diagram and the warmth of a personal archive, capturing the tactile reality of a pre-digital era.
VHS
Hollis Brown Thornton maps the physical weight of memory through the repetitive, ink-heavy lines of obsolete media. This piece renders a stack of VHS tapes with the precision of a technical diagram and the warmth of a personal archive, capturing the tactile reality of a pre-digital era.
A meaningful share of this purchase goes directly to Hollis Brown Thornton.
Every Arthaus piece supports a living artist.
Art Analysis
A Hand-Drawn Archive of Magnetic Memory
Using permanent marker on paper, Thornton recreates the familiar geometry of the VHS tape, turning a mass-produced object into a study of form and shadow. The landscape orientation emphasizes the horizontal stack, where each label and plastic casing becomes a building block in a larger, modular architecture of home entertainment. The stark black-and-white palette strips away the distractions of color, forcing an appreciation for the utilitarian design of these plastic vessels.
The work explores the tension between the rigid, mechanical design of magnetic tape and the fluid, hand-drawn marks that bring it to life on the page. By documenting these objects with such deliberate focus, the artist highlights a specific moment of transition in how we consume stories. It is a quiet meditation on the objects we once held in our hands, now relegated to the back of the closet or the edges of our collective memory.
The piece captures the specific aesthetic of 20th-century media through bold, manual linework that evokes a sense of history.
The artist uses bold colors and clean outlines to represent mathematical principles through a pop art aesthetic.
The drawing captures the shift from physical objects to digital files, grounding the viewer in the tactile era of the late 20th century.
The orderly arrangement of the tapes suggests a desire for harmony within a collection of personal or cultural artifacts.
Free Shipping
On all framed orders
100-Day Guarantee
Love it or return it
Gallery Quality
Museum-grade materials
Artist-Direct
Fair pay, every piece
More to Discover
More from Hollis Brown Thornton
ArtistMore of Hollis Brown Thornton’s work, hand-picked from the collection.
