A beautiful announcement of death

EXCERPT FROM GALLERY PRESS RELEASE 11 May – 15 June 2012, Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery, Soho, London

Capturing the forgotten alchemy of a medium often considered to serve a purely documentary function, through careful manipulation of water and light and without the use of postproduction techniques, the artist has produced a new series of photographic works that weave a deviant historical thread between the mechanical reproduction of today’s image making and the meticulous realism and existential gaze of painters such as Pieter Claesz of the 16th Century Vanitas tradition of painting.

With direct reference to the classical paintings ‘Ophelia’ (1851–52) by John Everett Millais and ‘La Jeune Martyre’ (1855) by Paul De La Roche, ‘A beautiful announcement of death’ takes the tragic story of Hamlet’s Ophelia as a central focus, drawing also a comparison with Alexander James’ own personal experience of a former lover’s suicide.

In James’ practice the camera, like the painter’s oils, is a tool in which to eternally preserve the bodies of the artist’s subjects: at times a collection of inanimate objects held in a purgatory state and at others the bodies of characters inscribed with historical and personal narratives, which the final image forever tells. It is both ironic and telling that water, the very element which for the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus stood as a symbol for the unstoppable mill of time, changing everything in its wake, serves precisely as the functional device through which he achieves the mesmerizing painterly effect of his photographs.

In his new body of work Alexander James is often found in direct dialogue with the painters that have inspired him as he participates in the age-old practice of contextualizing antiquities stories. In ‘A beautiful announcement of death’ photography emerges as a perplexing aporia, a kind of sorcery which successfully presences the past and yet only brings up ghosts.

Alexander James

2012

‘Eternal’

24ct gold halo.

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 80 x 80 Edition of 3.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Riverbrook with peony’

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 160 x 80 Edition of 2.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Turned from heavens door’

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 160 x 80 Edition of 2.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Resting in a bed of dreams’

24ct gold halo & wax flowers

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 80 x 60 Edition of 3.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Riverbrook with roses’

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 160 x 80 Edition of 2.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Witness’ Martyred Ophelia

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 180 x 135 Edition of 2.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Frequency of a crucifixion I’

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 40 x 30 Edition of 3.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Splash crucifixion I’

v print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 40 x 30 Edition of 3.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Splash crucifixion II’

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 40 x 30 Edition of 3.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Floral study 0448’

C-Type print, mounted to polished aluminum with a/r acrylic face.

Dimensions: 30 x 30 Edition of 5.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Floral study 0459’

C-Type print, mounted to polished aluminum with a/r acrylic face.

Dimensions: 30 x 30 Edition of 5.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Floral study 0464’

C-Type print, mounted to polished aluminum with a/r acrylic face.

Dimensions: 30 x 30 Edition of 5.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Floral study 0498’

C-Type print, mounted to polished aluminum with a/r acrylic face.

Dimensions: 30 x 30 Edition of 5.

2 Aritists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Floral study 0503’

C-Type print, mounted to polished aluminum with a/r acrylic face.

Dimensions: 30 x 30 Edition of 5.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Skull with halo’

Human skull, edwardian burial veil and 24ct gold halo.

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Dimensions: 40 x 30 Edition of 3.

2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Veiled Skull’

Human skull wrapped in edwardian burial veil.

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Edtion I : 40 x 30 Edition of 3 with 2 Artists Proofs

Edtion II: 120 x 90 Edition of 10 with 2 Artists Proofs

Alexander James

2012

‘Veiled skull with flowers’

Human skull, edwardian burial veil and violets.

C-Type print, mounted to aluminum & acrylic faced in a deep walnut frame.

Edtion I : 40 x 30 Edition of 3 with 2 Artists Proofs

Edtion II: 120 x 90 Edition of 10 with 2 Artists Proofs

All Rights Reserved © 2000 - 2013 Alexander James, Distil Ennui Studio™

All Rights Reserved © 2000 - 2013 Alexander James, Distil Ennui Studio™