James Wilde – The Collapse Before The Fall

The Collapse Before The Fall

Surfacing from a place of fear and simultaneous intrigue, this work follows a continued line of research, concentrating on autobiography, traces of personal failure and the photographic. Through distilling the images, by reworking them through alternative processes, this body of work investigates the use of metaphor, the collapse of masculinity and overcoming shame. Upholding concerns upon the deterioration of the photograph and the death of the image, visibility is shifted. Things pull out of the darkness and are lost within it. Allowing the photographs to speak quietly but with a firmer grounding of the subject.

Moving between thoughts on the night, shame and the queer image, this research considers ideas of abjection, the fallen male figure and the apologetic. The notion of fixity has been crucial in terms of both the physicality of the works along with the concept of paralysis (or more so, the third stage of human decomposition; rigor mortis). The stiffening feeling of shame and Gershen Kaufman’s perception of shame being the ‘fear of self-exposure’ have resulted in this language echoing through to the darkroom. Solarisation has transformed some of these latent images (the process whereby the prints have exposure to light again), rendering a poetic analogy to marginal spaces, to being on the edge, being between states and the space of the night too.

Through experimenting with the body, the still-life and interior spaces the limitations of the photographic image come into existence. The possibility of failure forever looming during the process and simultaneously becoming a driving force in the work. With this in mind, the photographs seek to harness an agency, where the self-reflexive nature of the work, uncovers a deep analysis of shame through visual correspondence, scale and the play between private and public interaction. Seeing photography as a visceral medium for shame, the work imbues or aims to restore pendulation between the observer and the image.

Bio:

James Wilde is a visual artist working with photography, installation, moving image and text. He is currently studying MA Photography at the Royal College of Art. In 2020 he organised ‘Strange Halves’ an online student-led talk series where he spoke in a conversation titled ‘At Second Glance’. He also was co-lead of ‘Writing the Night’ an Across RCA workshop held in 2019. He holds a First Class BA (Hons) in Photography from London College of Communication and in the same year became a member of ‘Writing Photographs’ a strand of The Photography and the Contemporary Imaginary Research Hub. James has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including Cambridge, London, New York and Italy. Recent group exhibitions include Connection Lost – Dyson Gallery, Battersea London (2020) and Everything the Same // Everything a Little Different – The Newington Art Academy, Wandsworth London (2019). Recent publications and features include Fall Into Place RCA (2020) and Explorations of the Self, Revolv Collective (2019).

Websitehttp://www.james-wilde.com Instagram@jameswildeYear2020