location: Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, North Carolina
dimensions: Thicket: 14 panels, 4' × 6' × 1/8" each. Row: 10 panels, 4' × 8' × 1/8" each. Barn: 3 panels 1/8" thick, two 4' × 8' and one 5' × 10'. Track: 18 earthcastings, approx. 18" x× 60" each.
materials: White laminated Masonite panel with roofing tar, Kilz paint, water-based acrylic floor sealer (paintings). Earthcasting (reinforced concrete with iron oxide cast in molds dug from the earth), acrylic sealer on 2" wood plinth (sculptures).
White Gold (2016–17) was an exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh of sculptures and paintings by American artist Thomas Sayre. White Gold included three large-scale murals about the growing of cotton in the American South (Thicket, Row, and Barn series), accompanied by concrete earthcasts representing furrows in a cotton field (Track series).
The murals were made on panel board with mud, tar, and resin. A laborious and layered process allowed the artist to rub, scrape, tear at, and gouge the surfaces to reveal shapes that morphed into seeds, skulls, flowers, and other abstractions.