JAMES REED PROCESS: ACCOMPLICE 2023

ACCOMPLICE April 2023 Gallery 114

I created ‘Not, not’ , it is a sculpture made from lime, goat hair, oak leaves and a base piano chord.

I made this object so that I had a context to visually engage deeper unseen and unformed aspects of the origins of the drive that caused me to create ‘Not, not’.

I made observational and experimental drawings of ‘Not, not’.
This caused the process to expand and unfold.
Paintings and sculptures emerged.
This is the body of work I call ‘Accomplice’.

*For further reference to this process of making visual there is an Annex to this text after the images below.

Untitled (Process Drawing iii)
2022
Graphite and Ferric Concentrate
on Fabriano
28x20

Untitled (Process Drawing i)
2022
Graphite and Ferric Concentrate
on Fabriano
28x20

Untitled (Process Drawing ii)
2022
Graphite and Ferric Concentrate
on Fabriano
28x20

The Meeting of Worlds
2020
Graphite and Ferric Concentrate
on Strathmore
48x32

Not not
2019
Lime, Oak Leaves,
Base Piano Chords,
Ferric Concentrate,
Goat Hair
8x14x10

Metri Matra
2022
Graphite and Ferric Concentrate
on Fabriano
28x20

Housekeeper
2023
Lime, Ferric Concentrate,
Base Piano Chord, Steel
47x39x39

Horizon
2022
Lime, Ferric Concentrate,
Canvas on Board
30x90

Groovy Tunes
2022
Lime, Ferric Concentrate,
Canvas on Board
26x41

Flash (In the Moment of Forming)
2022
Lime, Ferric Concentrate,
Base Piano Chord, Canvas
on Board
46x51

Director
2023
Lime, Cooler, Oak Leaves, Goat Hair,
Steel, Ferric Concentrate, Base Piano Chord
88x24x15

Circumstance ii
2022
Graphite and Ferric Concentrate
on Fabriano
28x20

Ascen-tials ii
2022
Lime, Ferric Concentrate,
Base Piano Chord, Canvas
on Board
84x20

GALLERY VIEWS

*ANNEX

These artworks emerged from a process of experimenting and playing.
In allowing this way of working to guide me in finding the way I realized that this drive to engage came from deeper currents I could not quite identify with words.
To enable a deeper process to unfold I realized that I would have to depend on a long slow journey of paying attention to internal images , moments of insight and go into a cogitative state to make difficult observations, choices and actions.
I relied on internally emerging images and what I was drawn to in the form of materials, techniques, methods, and found objects.
The criteria that the 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional Formal Visual Design Elements construct, provided the context in which my creative intelligence could realize these images.
Furthermore I was challenged by the 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional visual design elements that I used in creating these compositions when I chose the materials and objects to work with. However , with these challenges I was able to discover form and content that I was not yet conscious of.

The materials include a base piano chord, lime, goat hair, ferric concentrate, canvas, oak, oak leaves, steel, paper, and graphite. I worked with these materials in the methods and techniques of drawing, frottage, stenciling, embossing, painting, sculpting, molding, casting, welding, and installation.

The making of ‘Not, not’ originated from two found objects - a cooler and a funnel. To work with these objects, I cut the cooler up and then reconstructed it with the funnel inside of it. I then made observational drawings of this new object to explore its form.
In doing this , the idea came about to make a mold of the object and cast lime, goat hair, oak leaves and a base piano chord into it.

I then made experimental drawings of ‘Not, not’ .
The experimental drawing started by initially stylizing the form of “Not, not” that I had discovered in making the observational drawings. The stylized form was used in the making of a variety of low relief ‘printing’ plates, as a kind of 2D/3D template set I could use for duplication.
I used frottage (a technique developed by the Surrealist Max Ernst) to start the experimental drawings. The technique involved making graphite rubbings of the templates. Redoing the rubbing layer upon layer, resulting in chance line qualities, fragmentation, and repetition. I further developed what I saw emerging from this. By working in this way the depth of the pictorial space flattened and the form became more complex. This visual complexity transformed the hard-edge contours and rigidity of “Not, not’s” original form.
Now I saw “Not, not” with completely different content.
This process made what seemed mundane and simple into a complex set of drawings. The drawings generated further potential for my engagement and led to more new emerging images. The paintings and sculptures came about as a result.

I took notice of what I was drawn to and engaged the unseen currents which generated this drive.

By depending on visual art making processes “Accomplice” was “excavated”.

ARTIST TALK

Introduction Diagram from Artist Talk at Gallery 114 , April 16th 10am 2023. Visual Art process.