James McLardy » Work

‘Enduring Primes, Eccentric Graces’

James McLardy — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:22:07 +0000

A post-industrial office block.

Windows that contain nothing,

Mirrors containing everything.

A vertical film of liquid crystals,

A mainly Atlantic weather system,

Clouds in half-drunk coffee,

Through a filter,

Not context,

No context,

Through a filter.

A side door leads into a basement,

Brutally cast concrete columns half sunk into depressions in the floor,

Burdened monuments,

Crude gravity,

Enduring primes.

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James McLardy, 2012

Click here for more information on this exhibition…

‘Couldn’t Understand Science’

James McLardy — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:18:56 +0000

Self-contained and domestic in scale a white geometric form houses a decoratively painted marble disk. Vibrant blue, finger-pushed wax fills gaps cut in surfaces like faded lights, like dead eyes. These straight cut-lines reveal a sense of an interior material, exposing the fake nature of surface which, masquerades as an exterior. Through the works Sci-Fi aesthetic and its embellished surface McLardy creates an uncomfortable relationship between the hand painted faux marble, like a stone set and its monitor-like mounting, or console design? It’s a territory between that of monument, motif and defunct devise.

Made for the Art lending Library

‘Adolescent Gaze’

James McLardy — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:02:18 +0000

‘Born Male’

James McLardy — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:24:11 +0000

Surrounded by an ornate gallery with Corinthian columns and opulently moulded cornicing a series of objects are presented on a Kubrick-like reflective black monolithic slab. At one side sits an elliptical column form looking like an oversized marble pillow, at the other is a corrugated sandwich of forged copper and neon-blue wax. The bent edges of the thick copper plates seem shell-like in their half-sunk profiles, both protecting and squashing the fleshy wax within.

The title ‘Born Male’ invokes a missing figure, masculine at one time.

(On closer inspection)

The elipitcal form isn’t marble but an intense web of emerald green, cobalt blue, turquoise and rust brown marks. It’s a peacock façade disguising the MDF on which it’s painted – questioning whether intensely working a material gives it value beyond its materiality.

Futher Information on the exhibition

‘Upright is Now’

James McLardy — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:23:17 +0000

In a disused Athenian hotel a dark wood and glossy-plastic Deco-style form dominates a small room. Altar-like in its monumental scale ‘Upright is Now’ is made from Ebony veneer, plastic laminate, pigment and Wax. One side of the form presents a semi-circular alcove whilst the other side displays an inlaid sunrise motif. Which way round is the front? Is it a plinth, podium or a corporate reception desk? A thick ellipse of yellow wax has been thrust down against the top edge, as if frustrated by the clean edges and tight joins of a pointless design. The bright wax, half-torn, spills its colour down the inside of the curved alcove. Form does not follow function here; but through functions absence there’s room for a more totemic gesture.

…Click for next work in ‘Petrosphere‘

Futher Information on the exhibition

‘Set the head where the foot should be, or the foot where the head’

James McLardy — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:16:40 +0000

An arrangement of brightly coloured solid wax objects are stacked up in a pile like an up-scaled ‘Mr Potato Head’. The work titled ‘Set the head where the foot should be, or the foot where the head’ is made using the same pigmented wax which appeared in ‘Upright is Now’ but this work seems much more immediate, explicitly playful – more reminiscent of Philip Guston’s painterly forms than any high design. The sculpted/moulded forms and shapes draw parallels with the Deco style through curves and geometries. In reference to the title: there’s ridiculousness to the order of things here – There’s pleasure in the topsy turvy nature of this work, disrupting more formal readings and intentionally challenging the discipline of the work in other room.

Futher Information on the exhibition

‘Yodel Totem’

James McLardy — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:28:11 +0000

‘Untitled’

James McLardy — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:05:09 +0000

For more information on this project please see my blog

‘Public Art Programme’, ‘Stage Two Begins’ and ‘Into the Fields’

‘Bought Air’

James McLardy — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 12:25:53 +0000

The use of carved plastic laminated MDF, a large marbled stack of paper and turquoise powder coated steel tubes continues the play with material authenticity. The work (developed after a research trip to Palestine) establishes the highly stylized nature of a series of architecture-like features as an area of investigation. Reminiscent of 1930’s swimming pools, this installation develops a playful environment reminiscent of a water park in which visitors are invited to sit and explore an archive of literature on Palestinian history, culture and the Israel-Palestine conflict.The sculptural objects also highlight the social importance of water within the occupied Palestinian territories and question the role of leisure activities within an area often defined by conflict.

‘I was interested in referencing the Art Deco movement as a means to explore how past colonialist exoticfication of Middle Eastern motifs helped to perpetuate the notion of modernism as a cultural hierarchy’.

In spring 2010 James made a research trip to Palestine and produced this artwork during residence at the Danish Art Workshops in Copenhagen.

‘Strive to Set the Crooked Straight’

James McLardy — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:28:37 +0000

The neckerchief, being something worn by workers, artisans and craftsman is suggestive of the social idealism of artists and utopian visionaries such as William Blake and William Morris.

In ‘Strive to Set the Crooked Straight’ a three meter red neckerchief acts as a focal point – its up-scaled informality distorts perceptions of other works in the show creating an anti-monumental statement. Two walnut sculptures on which the printed fabric is presented appear as though separated halves of a large rectilinear object such as grandiose deco-style doorway.

Further info at Outpost Gallery