Thoydys’ Art takes care of what is left behind. He reuses old cardboard, ink, acid and shards of coal, turns old wood into something that looks like precious metals, shimmering gold and silver, unearthed treasure. Like an alchemist he transforms material of no value into a splendid opulence. The heavily textured surfaces of his paintings are like tarmac or an oil spill on the surface of water. We don’t know if we are looking at marks or language in Thoydys’ work. A narrative is spelt out in black sugar cubes, messages are suspended and obscured in resin, scripts are copied but not communicative. There is a strong sense of the materiality of painting and of the world in these works. He takes imprints that recall the Turin Shroud, rubs and frottage’s the surfaces of walls and floors. We can decipher the act of painting in the sweep of a brush, the scratch of a knife and cracks in the paint. His works are like the ‘painting’ processes of weather: of rust, corrosion and the blue-green patina of oxidized copper. Redeploying waste, he challenges and changes our perception of what we mean by poverty and by value.