A Moment With James

I sat down with James Ramsey, a 20 year old artist from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Currently studying the BA (Hons) Fine Art at the University of East London. We discussed a little about technology’s effect on new aspiring artists, the different mediums James uses to create his work, and about the work he will be exhibiting later this month. To view his work visit the AVA Building at the University of East London on Thursday the 31st My 2018, at 6pm.

Dalia: Hello

James: Gwain

Dalia: I’m good, how are you?

James: I’m good, I’m good

Dalia: What made you want to pursue art? James: Um I don’t know, I just want to make things. I like producing stuff. I like putting something out there that other people are going to interact with. Which is probably why I like new media art so much, because I feel like as a population we’re becoming much more tech savvy. Which just means that we have the potential to interact with art all the time, on our screens, in our technology.

Dalia: Do you feel like technology has helped or hurt you in becoming an artist?

James: Well, yeah my interest in technology, in that you can make art with it, spurs me to pursue art at degree level. So it has definitely helped. Learning to work with Maya or Sketchbook Pro, is sick. Saying that, technology also created this new online space for artists to gain attention. Which means you’ve just got to get bloody good to stand out.

Dalia: What’s Maya?

James: It’s digital 3D modelling and animation software, and sketchbook pro is like a real fancy Microsoft Paint. You can use it with a drawing tablet, basically making digital drawings and digital paintings. I just think that’s sick. That you can make them exist without making them exist.

Dalia: I’ve seen some of your more colourful work, how would you describe it?

James: The digital collages?

Dalia: Yeah.

James: Sound, sound. Erm, they’re just goofy collections of jokes things. They’re like amalgamations of stupid shit, all things queer and camp... and cheeky.

Dalia: What’s the first thing you do when you’re going to make a digital collage? James: The first thing I do is fill a file on my mac called ‘FAG FODDER’. I’ll find a jokes image, that’s kind of part of a queer private code, like Genesis P-Orridge doing something fucking weird. Then I work with colour, texture, shape and layers, until the composition and the narrative can come through. I want my digital work to be clean, but rough, and maybe a little bit dark and cheeky. I like messing with tension, between the audience and what you’re looking at. Because I want them to be drawn to it, but also kind of repulsed by it.

Dalia: Why?

James: Because it’s a funny way to show someone that there’s stuff about themselves that they don’t know. I feel like it’s a queer sensibility to understand that what you thought was true at any one moment, ended up changing. Doesn’t matter the specifics, but that feeling of being unfamiliar with yourself and having to accept a different reality. When something that you take very seriously is shaken off, it kind of makes you grow, maybe. Puts it in perspective. I can see the humour in it now, and, in return, I like to try unwind things that the audience might hold as a fact. Maybe it’s some dodgy coping mechanism.

Dalia: Is that the work that's going in the exhibition?

James: Yeah, I know it's late in the game but I’m still deciding if I should be exhibiting the collages as physical glossy prints, or on screens, like they were made. I guess we’ll see.

Dalia: Well I look forward to seeing how it turns out. Thank you so much for talking with me.

James: Cheers, sound. Don’t forget, free drinks!