highlike

JAMES HOPKINS

جيمس هوبكنز
詹姆斯·霍普金斯
ジェームズ·ホプキンス
제임스 홉킨스
Джеймс Хопкинс

JAMES HOPKINS 6

source: jameshopkinsworks

Born in Stockport, Cheshire, UK, 1976
Lives and works in Guernsey and London

Education

MA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2001–2002
Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2000–2001
BA (Hons) Fine Art Sculpture, University of Brighton, 1995–1998
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: theotherartfair

James Hopkins
Artist Statement
The majority of my practice is concerned with the role of judgment in connection to the process of vision. I am interested in optically adapting the familiar in order to create sculptural interventions, which momentarily knock the viewer’s perception off-kilter. I often slyly transform objects, imagery and text, giving them the power of self-reflective commentary, converting them to different items and nudging them towards an ‘impossible’ state that produces a sense of wonder to those who behold them.
My most recent body of work is based on corner-mounted text sculptures, which primarily play on the notion of fixing linguistic illusions through the isolation of the observer’s viewpoint. The artworks consist of letters and words, which have been stretched, sculpted and carved in opposing directions in order to switch meaning when looked at in the reflection of a mirror. The mirror is an integral aspect of the artwork and often determines the choice of word in relation to the context of the reflection and gaze of the viewer. These playful wall-mounted sculptures are a continuation of my interest in the ambiguity of the image and other scenarios, which confirm the visual puzzle and optical conundrum as my primary field of operation.
My sculptures often embody a perspective illusion, which hints at an epistemological uprooting that follows from the discovery that sight, our most relied-upon sense when looking at art, can be untrustworthy. My practice links an examination of the objects’ and words’ intrinsic characteristics and occasionally to a meditation on the fallout of this and other fundamental instabilities.
I consider perspective and the rendering of space in art to be the crux of artistic techniques and think that the most important link in the armoury of illusionistic art is the trick of perspective. My work is often concerned with as to whether we depend on fixed viewpoints to appreciate the rendering of space in perspective art. And raises the subsequent questions as to if any observation made from other areas than the fixed viewpoint may be considered incomplete.
I am most interested in how my sculptures are capable of simultaneously representing several different visual interpretations. I find it most intriguing how our visual perception of such sculptures can switch between two or more alternatives and what subsequent affect of perceiving a changing space of representation has upon our senses. When looking at my sculptures the viewer is made aware that each viewpoint adopted holds something entirely different from the next. This confirms that no one viewpoint when looking at sculpture can be any more reliable than the next.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: artmonstrru

Англичанин Джеймс Хопкинс (James Hopkins) родился в 1976 в Стокпорте. Живет и работает в Гернси и Лондоне.