Richard James
Recovered Object (56 Degrees 35 North 06 Degrees 16 West),
2006,
44 x 7 x 58 cm,
Mixed media
In 1603 Johann Bayer produced his "Uranometria", a star atlas to "measure the sky", reveal order and discover form in the void.
The act of plotting the "found positions" of the objects included in these new works was the beginning, a ritual mapping of the contours and waypoints defining the timeless spiritual landscape through which Life endlessly proceeds to Death.
Harsh geographies, restless places where sea and sky and earth jostle and collide, randomly sustaining or destroying the frail glimmerings of life that transit their incoherence - these are the temples in which the rituals are performed and the symbols revealed, from which the lost relics are recovered.
The works are an intrinsic celebration of the transient wonder of life, an evocation of Nature's singular mystery, and commentary on the tradition of macrocosm and microcosm reflected in one another.
Richard James 2006