James McArdle
Seeing involves an elusive, perhaps unknowable ‘coming into consciousness’ in a progression from nervous response to the stimulus of light, to awareness and to knowledge.
Sight is integral to the workings of the mind, in its imagination, hindsight and foresight; even coming before words in our consciousness. In the course of everyday perception, we also stare, crane our necks, glance, blink, shade, squint or close our eyes as we attempt to make sense of what we see, or think we see. Optical phenomena have been recorded as early as the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus in 1650 B.C. This connection between sight and thought, and the extent to which seeing can be considered a form of thought has contributed to a burgeoning literature and an equally rich artistic lineage.
Photography that documents experiments with sight may therefore serve as an analogue or surrogate of our ‘visual intelligence’. In my projects photography is employed as a means of exploring processes of seeing, and as an experimental synthesis of those processes in the development of an aesthetic.
My practice deals with being (noun and verb) in space and the perception of space and depiction of space; space at the intersection of ‘landscape’ and ‘human’.
The guiding principle is that observation inevitably changes what is observed, and I use differences between human and camera imaging as a metaphor for such effects. Previously I had employed differential planar focus to show this, where as in this research project I developed an imitation of our binocular vision, and applied this technique to reveal the mobility of our bodies in space as I sought a new means for its depiction.
Selected Exhibitions:
2012 March 29th – March 31st Group Show: Extremely Close and Incredibly Slow ASCA 2012 with Paula Albuquerque, Adomas Lapinskas, Ana Barroso, Laura Lipinskiene, Adam Chambers, Adriel Van Drimmelen, Aylin Kuryel and Rasel Meseri, Michael Goldberg, Moserrat Rifa-Valls, Lisa Harms, Janneke van der Putten, Gunnhildur Una Jonsdottir, Leonardo Vargas, Olivia Joret, Ruby Wallis, Wiktoria Furrer – Rafael Frueler and Denise Kratzer. De Vondelbunker & University Theater Amsterdam University De Voldelbunker: Vondelpark 8 (In de brug) University Theater Amsterdam University: Nieuwe Doelenlaan 16, 1012 Amsterdam Netherlands.
2012 14-31 March ‘Second Nature’ joint solo exhibitions with Lorena Carrington Stephen McLaughlan Gallery Melbourne, Level 8 Nicholas Building 37 Swanston St, Melbourne.
2011 Sept 16 – Nov 15 ‘Im/Mobile’ Photo Media in Light Boxes (Cycle 1 + 2) White Street Projects, Frankston, Melbourne (funded by Arts Victoria and Frankston City Council). http://www.whitestreetproject.org/node/84
2011 27 Apr – 14 May ‘Circle’, Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne. Group show.
2011 1 Apr – 31 May ‘Fruiting Bodies’. Castlemaine State Festival sponsored collaborative exhibition with Lorena Carrington
2009 7th October – 22nd October Creative Imperatives – Phyllis Palmer Gallery, School of Visual Arts & Design, La Trobe University, Bendigo.
2009 27 March – 5 April, Invited artist Castlemaine State Festival. 2009 Castlemaine Visual Arts Biennial “The Art of Making: Invention & Artisanship”
2008 Sat 05 Apr – Sun 18 May, Finalist 2008 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award Gold Coast City Art Gallery
2008 March 20 – April 27: Crosstalk – cross-faculty visual art and design research connections, View St Arts Centre Bendigo
2007 6 July – 6 Aug Joint Show with Daniel Armstrong Azimuth Phyllis Palmer Gallery, Bendigo
2007 July 17 – October 21, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, TWO ’S COMPANY , THREE’S A CROWD (Federation Room) Photographs from the collection – images of couples, group scenes, crowd scenes, etc. including works by Bruce Postle, Carol Jerrems, David Moore, Matthew Sleeth, James McArdle and Max Dupain. Curated by HRAG Curator, Trevor Smith
2005 Albury City Art Gallery 2005 National Photographic Purchase Award 3 August – 4 September
2004 April: solo show at Smyrnios Gallery, Prahran, Melbourne
2004 March: solo show “Vortex”, Phyllis Palmer Gallery Bendigo.
