Students

Richard Taylor focusses on how James Clarkson’s migration to Artists talking from Degrees unedited simulates other moves in his practice, his studio and in his unique insight on objects re-placed into the contemporary art context.

Meeting mentors moving studios and making sound

James's practice explores electronic music as a cultural response to the formal language of modernist art and design, promoting the need to re-evaluate minimalism as an output of maximalist idealism. Through collage and sculpture he breaks the structural conventions of environment, mimicking the formal language of interior design and graphic symbolism.

Being a part of the S1 Artspace community in Sheffield James has recently built a new studio for his work whilst continuing his practice in an old studio and at home. So in the mean time, what space is there for the quiet contemplation and critical discussion his work requires?

"In terms of a peer group S1 is positive. I'm not saying that I can't talk about my work there, I think its more a question of balancing time spent on the new S1 building, my own artistic production, and then dealing with where there's space for critical discussion to occur between two disjointed environments. It was a strange situation, I had one half built studio and another that was slowly being deconstructed."

After completing his bursary and mentorship at S1 James started working as an assistant for artist Haroon Mirza: "It is an interesting perspective of the art world and one thing Haroon has stressed, which I believe is true, is how new graduates need to keep making new work and engaging with the art scene for the first six months after their degree - its imperative..."

But how do you give yourself that push to keep going?

New shifts in practice and dealing with objects to hand

James is currently in more places than one, at once, and as a new artist he's not complacent about the duality of his working life or dichotomies in his practice. As well as having a fresh slant on how the contemporary art world functions, through his artist assistant endeavours, he very much steeps his own work in historical importance:

"Mid 20th century antiques and their cultural and historical placing, play a big role. What interests me about a lot of artists at the moment is the way they are dealing with this process: the way they're using design as a platform for exchange, and are also using other artists' work to comment on periods of time or update a response to a certain style."

But how do you insert all of this in to one installation or one collage? There has to be a place for dialogue and process, research and reference that means the final work is not overly complex. There's been a lot of flux in James's artist career - albeit it has only been six months since he has graduated - but his work's simplicity is more cautious than one might think. And certainly if you sit him down in front of you with a coffee, his ideas hold a lot more in person.

"Whilst growing up I used to trawl antiques fairs, auction houses and junk shops with my dad: this has left me with quite and extensive knowledge surrounding design and the history of art. He is an antiques dealer and this put me into a position where I was handling objects of great historical importance on a daily basis. One thing I want to deal with in my work now is how to get this interest and knowledge involved with my practice..."

Perhaps the artist's displacement between context and exhibition is explored through an entering in to further dialogue. Certainly, James's use of Degrees unedited allowed him to maintain a critical eye outwith his focussed studio practice, so how is he using Artists talking now to divulge in ideas as well as medium?

The interview continues on James's Project blog »

James's website
www.james-clarkson.co.uk »

S1 Artspace website
www.s1artspace.org »

Richard Taylor

Richard is an artist/writer living in Edinburgh and online editor on behalf of a-n The Artists Information Company, for the Degrees unedited and Students community sites.

www.rich-taylor.co.uk

First published: a-n.co.uk December 2010