africanah.org

Arena for Contemporary African, African-American and Caribbean Art

February James

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February James

Royal, 2018

 

 

 

 

 
Thoughts.

For James the work holds an autobiographical narrative, her paintings represent her own experiences and familial relationships, they speak to her and tell their stories. But the figures themselves are devoid of construct, they strive to capture the essence of a person rather than their physicality, so that we are invited to create our own characterizations, based on our own relationships. When experienced through the window of domesticity, the figures become even more personal to the viewer, the storytelling embroiled in our own subjectivity, leaving us to wonder how much of what we perceive is real, and how much is social construct.

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And then the ardigm shifts

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Regards to Jessy

James explores what factors influence identity formation: how truth is conditioned by the frameworks through which it is received; she asks the question, how much does the legacy of a family influence our everyday life, our vulnerabilities, our expectations, and explores the hidden emotions that exist between what we see and what we experience.