cusp.talk : James Wilde
Butterflies, 2020
cusp. :
Please introduce yourself first ～ (For example, where do you live, your educational background, when did you become interested in art, or any content)
可以先简单介绍一下自己吗：）你现在居住在哪里，你的教育背景，从什么时间点开始对图像产生了兴趣，同时也可以是任何想说的。
James：
I’m James Wilde, a visual artist based in London. I recently graduated from the Royal College of Art and previously studied at the London College of Communication and the School of Visual Arts in New York. I first became interested in photography after a friend showed me a small print she had made in the darkroom after school. I ended up taking the same class every Thursday afternoon, forgetting where the time went and haven’t left the darkroom since.
我是James Wilde，是工作和创作在伦敦的视觉艺术家。我最近毕业于皇家艺术学院，之前曾就读于伦敦传播学院和纽约视觉艺术学院。我第一次对摄影产生了兴趣，是一个朋友在放学后给我看了她在暗房里制作的小照片。然后我每个星期四下午都翘课去暗房，那时候总是忘记时间去了哪里，但从那以后我就没有离开过暗房。
Too Heavy for you，2019
cusp. :
How would you describe your creation? (For example, commonly used media and techniques, focus on themes, visual style, etc.)
你会怎样讲述自己的创作：）
James：
The two photographs in the exhibition are taken from research materials concerned with mortality, and nature. In the first, a reptilian foot sinks into the earth, clawing at the surrounding debris of leaves. In the second, the orientation of the photograph has been intentionally displayed vertically. It depicts a colony of bats circling a tree branch, their skeletal winged bodies dance across the paper as a sort of deathly murmuration. Seeing these works collectively exhibited for the first time, I think new interpretation and metaphor is brought into emphasis. Notions of abjection, horror and the gothic converge with the essence of the night and allude to an alternative state of existence, whereby the animals are fixed in a photographic moment of chaos, melancholy, even desperation.
展览中的两张照片关于我对于死亡和自然有关的研究材料后产生的图像。第一张，一只爬行动物的脚沉入地下，抓着周围的树叶碎片。在第二个中，照片的方向被有意地垂直显示。它描绘了一群蝙蝠在树枝上盘旋，它们带翅膀的骷髅身体在纸上跳舞，像传达出一种致命的低语。看到这些作品第一次集体展出，我觉得强调了新的解释和隐喻。落魄、恐怖和哥特的概念与夜晚的本质融合在一起，暗示了另一种存在状态，动物被固定在混乱、忧郁甚至绝望的摄影时刻。
Untitled (Dragon Foot), 2020
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Untitled (Bats), 2020
Untitled (Bats), 2020
cusp. :
What cultural/factors have influenced your creation? (e.g. literature, movies, music, games, architecture, etc.)
可以告诉大家你创作受到哪些文化和因素的影响吗？
James：
Without a doubt, Charles Baudelaire’s poetry and writing, especially Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris, along with the selected writing on Art & Literature. I was also influenced by the cenotaph of Baudelaire in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, sculpted by José de Charmoy.
毫无疑问，是Charles Baudelaire的诗歌和写作，尤其是 Les Fleurs du Mal 和 Le Spleen de Paris，以及他的艺术与文学的写作。我还受到了位于巴黎蒙帕纳斯公墓的波德莱尔纪念碑的影响，该纪念碑由 José de Charmoy 雕刻而成。
Untitled (Hell's Staircase II), 2019
cusp. :
Can you introduce one or two of your own works/projects in detail?
能否详细介绍自己的 1、2 件作品/项目?
James：
Moving between thoughts on the night, shame and the queer image, this research considers ideas of abjection, the fallen male figure and the apologetic. The notion of fixity has been crucial in terms of both the physicality of the works along with the concept of paralysis (or more so, the third stage of human decomposition; rigor mortis). The stiffening feeling of shame and Gershen Kaufman’s perception of shame being the ‘fear of self-exposure’ have resulted in this language echoing through to the darkroom. Solarisation has transformed some of these latent images (the process whereby the prints have exposure to light again), rendering a poetic analogy to marginal spaces, to being on the edge, being between states and the space of the night too.
我的作品主题总在夜晚、羞耻和酷儿形象的思考之间移动，这项研究考虑了落魄、堕落的男性形象和道歉的想法。固定性的概念对于作品的物理性以及瘫痪的概念地延伸（或者更重要的是，人类分解的第三阶段；尸体僵硬）这些想法对我来说都是至关重要的。僵硬的羞耻感和Gershen Kaufman将羞耻感视为“害怕自我暴露”导致这种语言在暗房中回荡。相机中照相底片过度曝光的情况下观察到的色调反转的效果已经改变了这些潜在图像中的一些状态（印刷品再次暴露在光线下的过程），将边缘空间、处于边缘、处于当下的状态和夜晚的空间进行了诗意的类比。
Untitled (The Double), 2018
cusp. :
Can you introduce your life and creative state? What are your special work habits? (It can include inspiration collection, daily work habits, the process from inspiration to realization, etc.)
可以讲述一下你的生活和创作状态?
James：
I find myself the most creative when printing in the darkroom and working in the night. There’s something really stimulating about being awake when everything else seems inactive, the solitude allows for a sort of distillation of thought, where things emerge like a stain and never leave. That’s when I know I’m working in the right direction and start to assemble works and notes in the studio, in compositions that take into consideration spatial form, subject matter, echoes of textures and visual correlations.
我发现自己在暗室打印和夜间工作时最有创意。当其他一切似乎都不活跃时，清醒真的会很令人兴奋，同时孤独的感受也让我感受到，在这个瞬间，是允许我当下思考的一种想法不断深入，事物和思想像污点一样出现并且永不离开。这个时候我知道我正在朝着正确的方向工作，同时我也会在工作室中组装作品和记录笔记，在作品中总会考虑到空间形式、主题、纹理的回声和视觉相关性等等。
Untitled (Dad), 2018
cusp. :
What are your daily hobbies?
你每天的习惯是什么？
James：
I wish they could be daily, but I couldn’t live without reading and spending afternoons in galleries, looking at paintings and of course photographic prints. I’m currently re-reading ‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt, which blends these two interests with a gripping story on loneliness and longing.
我希望很多东西都可以在每天发生，但我每天的确不能不阅读和在画廊度过下午，看画作，当然还有照相版画。我目前正在重读Donna Tartt 的《金翅雀》，它故事内容主要将这两种兴趣与一个关于孤独和渴望的扣人心弦的故事融合在一起。
Untitled (The Fall), 2020
cusp. :
What is the current concern and thinking?
最近每天思考和关心的问题是什么?
James：
I’ve recently been thinking about the photographs of Wilhelm Von Gloeden and Guglielmo Plüschow, especially the props used by both such as laurel wreaths, animal skins and kilims, suggesting Greek or Italian antiquity. Along with this, I’ve been thinking about Freud’s couch in London and Vienna, surrounded by similar objects and what the reclined figure suggests to us when documented as a visual description.
我最近一直在思考 Wilhelm Von Gloeden 和 Guglielmo Plüschow 的照片，尤其是他们使用的道具，如月桂花环、兽皮和基里姆地毯，暗示着希腊或意大利的古代。与此同时，我一直在思考弗洛伊德在伦敦和维也纳的沙发，周围环绕着类似的物体，以及当记录转化成为视觉描述时，斜躺着的人物对我们的暗示。
Untitled (Grave), 2016Can you talk about favorite artists and favorite books?
可以讲讲你喜欢的艺术家和喜欢的读物吗？
James：
It always changes or becomes more of an endless list! I would say for now, my current favourite artist would be Mark McKnight or Martin Sekera. But then also for painting I’ve recently been revisiting works by Kaye Donachie and Paul P. With books, Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter has really stayed with me.
它总是会改变或变得更像是一个无穷无尽的列表！我现在想说，我目前最喜欢的艺术家是 Mark McKnight 或 Martin Sekera。但对于绘画，我最近一直在重温 Kaye Donachie 和 Paul P. 的作品。Max Porter 的书， Grief is the Thing with Feathers 也一直伴随着我。
Truth & Falsehood (Victoria & Albert Museum), 2020
What do you think is the happiest thing you have ever encountered?
觉得遇到过最开心的事情？
James：
I couldn’t pin down one thing, but definitely the happiest times I’ve encountered have been with my mother. Mostly when we’ve travelled together in Europe and Asia. There’s something deeply moving when looking back at the cultures and places we’ve experienced together.
我无法确定哪一件事，但绝对是我遇到的最快乐的时光是和我妈妈在一起。主要是当我们一起在欧洲和亚洲旅行时。回顾我们共同经历过的文化和地方，都会有一些深深的感动。
Daniel，2019
cusp. : Talk about future plans?
你未来的规划是什么？
James：
I’m currently working on assembling a monograph, The Night Is Also A Vapour (current working title) that will feature my own writing and photographs, looking deeply at the subject of shame and it’s relation to queerness and the photographic. Many of the photographs are taken from my graduate series, The Collapse Before The Fall and early works from The Death of Failure and The Night That Leaves Him. Slipping between autobiographical text and photography, this personal narrative universally invites an experience of queer identity told through the reoccurrence of failures that come with displacement and shame.
我目前正在编写一本刊物，《夜晚也是一种水汽》（当前的工作标题）以我自己的写作和照片为主要内容，同样也是深入研究羞耻的主题，以及它与酷儿和摄影的关系。许多照片取自我的研究生时期创作的系列“堕落前的崩溃”和“失败之死”和“离开他的夜晚”的一些早期作品。在书写的过程中我总在自传式的文本和摄影之间徘徊，这种个人叙事引发了我一种关于普遍的奇怪身份体验，通过流离失所和羞耻带来的反复的失败发生来讲述这些奇怪的体验。
Truth & Falsehood (Victoria & Albert Museum), 2020
cusp. :
Can you talk about your views on the theme of this exhibition? How to connect with your own work?
这次展览主题森林和夜晚的看法？如何和自己的作品联系？
James：
I’m so grateful to be amongst this group of artists in La Nuit et la forêt. Firstly the curation of the works into sub-categories really took my interest. My own works being within Intimacy at Night, made so much sense when I initially found out and especially considering my works are usually made at night or photographically within the space of the night (the darkroom). I felt this really encapsulated something I’m always trying to achieve within the space of the gallery. More specifically the prints hung within a corner, now forming a new dialogue. And this is something I’m recently becoming more interested in - this overflow of visual matter, and slip of vision from one thing to the next delineates a certain message or new meaning instantaneously.
我很开心能成为这群艺术家之一，首先，将作品分成子类别让我很感兴趣。我自己的作品在夜间亲密关系中，当我最初发现时非常有意义，特别是考虑到我的作品通常是在夜间或在夜间空间（暗房）内拍摄的。我觉得这让我尝试一直试图在画廊空间内实现的东西。再更具体地讨论的话，印刷品挂在一个角落里，现在形成了一个新的对话。这是我最近越来越感兴趣的东西—这种视觉物质的溢出，以及从一件事到另一件事的忽然瞬间是否可以勾勒出某个信息或新含义。
Thank you James Wilde ! ©️James Wilde