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Adam Art Gallery
29 May – 25 July 2004 |
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Curatorial
Statement | Artist's
Résumé
Since 1999 Canterbury painter Linda James has
worked on a major series of paintings
entitled 'Chaos' - an ongoing investigation into violence, nihilism, resistance,
power and the breakdown of power. Yet despite their frequently melodramatic subject
matter, the paintings are remarkable for their sparseness, conveying complex
narratives in the most simple of ways. Pared down to the point where they teeter
on the edge of becoming a naive caricature, James' paintings deftly retain their
power through her directness and surety of approach.
In an art world populated by large, loud works, James' paintings are unusual,
almost old fashioned in their modesty and sensitivity towards their subjects.
Drawing her imagery from the pages of art history and news coverage, James plucks
her characters from their original context and welcomes them into her own personal
universe, a multifarious place where a soldier fighting America's 'War on Terror' in
Iraq might stand cheek by jowl with a woman from a Renaissance painting.
The four paintings in Telecom Prospect 2004 are portraits
depicting quite ordinary people: the anonymous young faces
of Iraqi soldiers, a weeping girl farewelling her love, the
ruddy cheeks of a local farmer. The works are a kind of memoriam
to unmemorable lives and it is the simplicity of James' rendition
that gives these paintings their emotional charge.
Emma Bugden
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