James Hopkins

American critic Brian Sholis beautifully sums up Hopkins’ practice by describing how he “slyly transforms everyday objects, imbuing them with the power of self-reflexive commentary, converting them into altogether different items, nudging them toward an “impossible” state that produces an astonished incredulity in those who behold them”. Hopkins’ work draws from the techniques of optical illusionism through which he involves viewers by teasing with their visual consciousness. His sculptures allude to Symbolist literature in their spin on decadence and the self-indulgence of dandy-ism: they recall the impermanence of objects and their persistence in memory, in a similar way Pop Art made use of iconic images derived from vain consumerism. His sculptures utilise everyday objects that are turned into impossible variations, even into sly commentaries of themselves. Seminal pieces include alterations of chairs, stools, tables, ladders or even pianos that achieve balance through precarious equilibrium. Since graduating in 2002, the artist has been also making work around the themes of anamorphism and impaired perception. Spirit Level (2005), for instance, comprises of eight vodka bottles whose liquid content remains level while resting on a “drunkenly” tilted shelf (itself perhaps a comment on getting drunk’s downward slide). Hovering between abstraction and representation, his previous series of works based on popular American TV cartoons such as Tom & Jerry or The Simpsons investigate the role of visual judgement in connection to the process of viewing from a specific angle. Despite the distorted form imposed on the famous characters, the figures still keep recognisable. A similar work, The Band (2001-02), features a guitar, a compacted drum kit and a quadrilateral keyboard: each item’s distortion mimics intentionally its own traits, like the expanded guitar imitating the reverberating amplified note (or the band leader’s larger-than-life persona).

Hopkins (b. 1976, Stockport, UK) lives and works in London. This year he will participate in The Other Way Around, Cosmic Gallerie Paris and Hiroshima Art Document 2008, The former Bank of Japan, Hiroshima branch. In 2007 he had a solo exhibition at Max Wigram Gallery, and participated in exhibitions internationally including Freak Show at the Musée d’art Contemporain (Lyon); Bienal de Escultura de Valladolid (Spain); World Receiver - 10th Anniversary of the Galerie der Gegenwart at Hamburger Kunsthalle, (Hamburg, Germany). Previous exhibitions in 2006 include solos at Cosmic Gallery (Paris) and Rivington Arms (NYC), and the group shows Choosing my religion at Kunstmuseum Thun (Switzerland) and A Brighter Day at James Cohan Gallery (NY).

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