ORIGINS: The beauty of the natural world through a lens
PUBLISHED July 23rd, 2012 10:19 am | UPDATED March 28th, 2016 05:34 pm
This month, for four days only, we will have the chance to behold the work of renowned American photographer James Wilkins, as his inaugural exhibition in Asia opens at The Arts House.
His arresting photographic works – which capture and re-interpret patterns and the poetics of the natural elements in flowers and water among many other subjects – are just part of a bigger picture.
This bigger picture is the launch of Gallery R, not a gallery with a physical space as such, but instead a collective of international artists, who have joined forces to showcase across Asia and raise awareness of environmental issues through fine art inspired by the natural world. Indeed, 10% of proceeds from the exhibition will be donated to WWF Singapore.
Inspirational stuff right? Well, what’s even more inspiring is that the seed for this mission was actually sown by a 7 year old boy, Rohinish Gupta, who recently went to New York, saw James´ work and established a connection between the natural elements that he portrays and Global Warming concerns. This boy understood that art could be powerful enough to create awareness around environmental issues and to positively impact on the sustainability of the Planet. Wow.
The exhibition will include beautiful works from the last 8 years from Wilkinson’s collections PALM CRESTS, IMPACTS, WATER COLUMNS and MOONRISE among others, which will be a chance to take in his unique printing techniques (more on that below), which will be seen for the first time in Asia.
In the weeks running up to the exhibition, we had the opportunity to catch up with the man himself for a rather inspirational interview…
Your mission is ‘To contribute to and promote the transformation of the experience of life, through images whose content, meaning and beauty uplift the human experience.’ Could you elaborate on that?
And if I have really done my job well, this can happen each time the piece is encountered…to constantly be seeing new elements and relationships, between the work, oneself and the world.  The mission of environmental awareness and action that Gallery R is committed to is a perfect example of a way in which we can be changed by a work of art. Our awareness can be elevated. Our actions can be altered.  Our communities can be inspired. All things are possible through transformation. Art transforms.
Photography has the elusive benefit of being a recorder of reality. This is of course a completely untrue belief that many have. Photography is not now, nor has it ever been, a reflection of reality..any more than painting or drawing. Yet it is believed that it is reality…and will probably always be perceived that way.
This actually opens a huge window of opportunity to the artist who learns to render the agreement of reality and simultaneously exploit the many other truths of photography including optics, chemistry and now digital tools. With these tools photography can render realities, as well as any other layers of intent and meaning that the artist chooses to address.  Therefore the finished artworks are limited only by the artists imagination and scale of purpose for the artwork.
Photography simply defined is the study of light. ‘Photon’ meaning particle of light– and ‘graphy’ meaning the study of. I am endlessly…passionately fascinated by light. Everything we believe we know by sight is of course a function of light….all color…form….all spatial relationships etc.
I choose the subjects as a combination of what I observe as a study of light and what I perceive is possible to draw out of the subject matter, in terms of the content and meaning that I am in pursuit of at a particular time.
I also have always felt a profound connection to the natural world. I am interested in expressing new viewpoints and ideas. Palms for example are recreated in artworks around the world and yet nearly always seen in a predictable scenic manner. Having never seen the palm examined intently to feature its many fascinating properties I set out to do just that and in doing so discovered an element of their features that led inescapably to a series of new ‘icons’.
There are several different print types in the exhibition. Many of which have metals as their visual touchstone. Again the quality of metal is one that refers to the study of light. The pursuit of an object’s inner essence as an expression of light.
The polished silver foil print has a highly reflective quality that features lacquer black shadows and polished silver highlights. The burnished silver foil print has a shimmering sense of light that seems to glow from deep within the objects in the image. The print direct to di-bond is actually a printing directly on aluminum whose highlights remain as raw aluminum which glints like jewelry as one moves across the piece. The metallic print is a photographic paper which has a metallic element in the emulsion that  renders an emanating pearly glow.
Much of my work is focused on abstraction. Many think of abstraction to mean non-representational. My work is usually representational…the abstraction is achieved in the perception of what is represented.
In presenting the subject in an original way, from a unique perspective and with novel subtexts, the images are largely abstracted. Elimination of color is one direct step toward abstraction.  The world we see and know is in color.
Therefore by creating images in black and white I immediately create a new world for new considerations.
I think this is a profound expression of the way in which art can transform. There is certainly no age requirement to the experience of the ability of art to transform the experience of life.  In fact there is great poetry to the simplicity of the mind of a child and their ability to quickly arrive at new perspectives and possibilities.
Rohinish had clearly been very closely  related to the environment and the natural world and it seemed that his ability to create a connectedness between art, image, representation and contemporary crisis of the environment illustrates one way in which the content meaning and beauty of the work created a new vision of  transformation for the way we interact with and care for the environment that can uplift the human experience.
My work aspires to impact the viewer on several different levels, subtext, spiritual notes, formal observations and more.
I hope the viewers take away a new perspective. New things to think about. A new sense of beauty and appreciation of things as once perceived and in new ways that illuminate their other qualities not ordinarily regarded when looking at the subjects in their traditional sense.
I am very excited to continue working on two new collections –  FAITH that looks at the historical precedents of religious art in a modern way. And EXTINCTION that seeks to find understanding of the way in which our impermanence manifests itself in the world around us.
And to continue to work with Gallery R in creating a powerful movement of art that brings awareness to our fragile environment…and what we can do about securing a more stable foundation for recovery from the abuses of the recent times.
Gallery R will be presenting Origins, an exhibition by James Wilkins at The Arts House at Old Parliament, Â at the Gallery, July 27th – 29th, 10am – 8pm. For more information on Gallery R see here.
Written by Ms Demeanour
