DEGREES UNEDITED

# 1 [20 December 2009]

Psychologist Frederic Bartlett noted when we deconstruct an image, it soon becomes an autobiographical process in which we end up analysing and speaking about our relationship to an image via our personal memories. My practice does this very thing, addressing identities in images and interweaving autobiographical memories and alter egos into them.  Looking through my family’s old photographs last year, I came across a studio-shot photograph of a boy in his mid teens, wearing a suit from the early twentieth century.  When asked, neither grandparent could identity him.  Honouring an unknown person purely based on the assumption that they are somehow distantly related to me was something I found bizarre yet appealing at the same time.  I have always been interested in untold stories that photographs hold, the narrative to which can reinforce memory or obliterate it completely.

So i've finished for Xmas now, but will spend most of it experimenting juxtaposing old family photographs with the photographs I have produced.

www.jamesfickling.co.uk

# 2 [4 March 2010]

Fuelled by Edwardian conventions and using art practice to scrutinize my own predicament, I have set out to uncover who James Fickling is, mediated through the eyes of the other – an alter ego who co-authors my work.

...And because of this, as i'm sure many of you are, i'm so drained right now!  It's so frustrating when you're so into a project that it drains you completely.  It's like a sweet sin...

Anyways... Onwards and upwards! 

www.flickr.com/jamesfickling

# 3 [21 May 2010]

...And here it is.  The Graduate Exhibition.  Three years have passed by and it doesn't feel like two minutes.  I never expected anything, I went in with open eyes but a strong sense of self. 

I have always questioned as to whether Staffordshire University was the right choice for me.  The thought actually plagued me for the first two years.  However, it is now that I can look back and say YES - I wouldn't be the artist I am today without the support I received on this course. 

I feel confident and ready to move onwards and upwards into the real world (after hopefully an MA at Nottingham Trent University). 

# 4 [3 June 2010]

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/art_and_design/deg...

# 5 [3 June 2010]

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/art_and_design/deg...

...the show... ...my show... ...our show...