James Jean Azimuth

2018

Documentation

Client: James Jean

Location: Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

“It’s been a long time since my last major solo show. In my mind, it feels like it just happened, but when I look at the calendar and count the years, I run out of fingers on one hand. Time is set at a terminal velocity and my brain drags in the distance – memories glimmer dimly like ancient stars in a rapidly expanding universe. You see, I can easily veer into the familiar darkness of space. 

But as a reaction to my previous work, I’ve fully immersed myself in light, igniting a sun to reveal a realm of ultimate optimism and innocence, encouraging the shadows to retreat into their crevices and obediently delineate the form. I’ve created portals of stained glass, through which light can travel and discharge bursts of color. The heavy black lines surrounding the glass, made from bending strips of soft lead, resemble the drawings in the stacks of coloring books that surround my studio. 

On my journey to work, my feet are often impaled on shards of broken crayons as I travel around piles of hyper-colored rubble, the tiny artifacts of my son working their way into my flesh. My first son, shining sun, nuclear powered, radiating an ultraviolet light that kills the germs in my mind and clears the mold from my eyes. With the filth gone, I can see and use color in a new way. Heavily pigmented and obsessively layered, the paintings reflect light at maximum chroma. The color is pure, free from the umbers and contamination of a sophisticated, entropic world. 

The light carries the eye through various mediums and interwoven narratives punctuated by fireworks, prisms, fused glass, and giant sentient flowers. The canvas is fertile and drinks up the paint, welcoming the new sun and photosynthesizing its energy into a radiant universe.” 

– James Jean