A Spacious Place

2024

In this body of work, David James explores the sense of interiority in response to the human form.

Interiority relates to the inner world – an internal space of reflection, formation, and potential, that, despite external conditions, forms a personal experience of an inner spaciousness. Thomas Merton describes it this way, “our real journey is interior; it is a matter of growth, deepening, and an ever-greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.”

With this series of new drawings, oil paintings, and monotype prints, the body acts as a metaphor of protection. Here, like the casing of a seed, the body creates the external support for the potential of a life within. Yet, in time, the casing must give way for that seed of ‘something-new’ to form. Within these works, the tension between the unseen-inner and material worlds are considered together – simultaneously, the inside and outside of things.

The works reference a classical figurative tradition and a contemporary approach to working with the figure. The tension of sensitivity and control, disrupted through expressive techniques, tight cropping, and colour, create an emotive approach of engagement with the work, offering reflection and alternative narratives to emerge.