James Evans

James' new work can be broken down into two separate groups.  Both connected by marble.  The pieces set high on rusty thrown pedestals with embracing brackets were derived from an idea he had looking at the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum.  James was drawn to the metal bases that elevated the hefty silhouetted chunks of fractured marble, defying their weight and balance.  The second group of pieces, and most recent, was more intuitive and process led.  He was exploring new ways to build and stumbled upon a way to create flowing slabs with a tooled relief.  This allowed him to create forms similar to reclaimed architectural stone.  With the surface James likes to create a passage of time, a fragment of the past.

Through out his studying and studio work to date, James has drawn on the human form and architecture as sources for inspiration. Wavering now and again with trends and with the influence of peers.  He thinks these diversions benefit his work as they can open doors to new ways of working and conceptual approach.  Living in London has given James access to many museums and its from museums like the V&A and British Museum he has been able to study figurative sculpture. When he worked at the V&A museum for a while the “Three Graces” buttocks were in his eye-line, but it was the subtle curves in the waist and shoulders that drew his eye.  This hard solid material was softened with the tiniest curve or fold transferring the mass this way and that.  It is that element of contrast that James wishes to capture and then place it in a form that has no reference to the body.  This where the architectural portion comes in.