Images

The first block of five images experiment with the fictive potential of photography. “The Gelatinous Death of the Jet Age” was a series of twelve images named after stages in an adaptation of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, “the writer’s journey,” implying narrative by placing images in an archetypal story structure. The black image of my ex-wife Amy comes from a study for a project imagining my great- grandfather Rufus Keeler’s life and painful death working for Malibu Pottery, creating chroma-saturated glazes made from exotic, deadly chemicals in the 1930s.

Ex-Wife in Agony. (2017) Part of a series imagining the chemical saturated life of my great grandfather Rufus Keeler of Malibu Potteries.
The Gelatinous Death of the Jet Age (Tests, Allies, Enemies). 2017.
The Gelatinous Death of the Jet Age (Meeting the Mentor). 2017.
The Gelatinous Death of the Jet Age (Return with the Elixir) 2016.
The Gelatinous Death of the Jet Age (The Ordeal) 2017.

Here are some recent images. Most are attempts to incorporate narrative into a single frame (although I consider the last two a diptych).

“Lichen what you see?” (2019)
After The Prisoner (2018)
James Dean is Green (2018)
Midlife Crisis Series (2018)
Midlife Crisis Series (2019)

You might also be interested in some work that combines memoir and archival images. Here are some based on my grandfather’s exploration of the Amazon: My Grandfather’s Imposter (son-in-law of the great-grandfather mentioned above).

I’ll close with some images from COGNITIVE ARTIFACTS (including a few from the archive that they were taken from – Tahlequah flaneur series). This was a year-long project funded by the NEA-funded Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. Exhibit won 2017 “Art of the Year” from The Oklahoman.

Spook Light in a dress shop. (2016) Tahlequah flaneur archive.
Cognitive Artifacts installation in progress (2017)
Cognitive Artifacts (2017) Installation view (Norman, OK)
Cognitive Artifacts (2017) shot of a participant
Tahlequah flaneur series (2017)

End with a bang!

Return to the Portfolio page

Read some of his writing

Read about his work with interactive games

James McGirk

James McGirk

Art and writing about technology, finance, geopolitical volatility, risk and beauty.

Page

Images

Sidebar