James Bryans Inside/Outside (U.S.A
In ‘Inside/Outside (U.S.A)’ James Bryans (re)captures iconic American landmarks frequently depicted in film and television, revealing the strangeness, unfamiliarity and complexity of familiar land.
Artist Statement
Before I headed off to America for the first time, a friend told me that the US is as much a foreign country as a lot of the places that most would call ‘exotic’. Like many, my preconceptions of America mainly came from film and television. But landscapes and monuments that are so vast and breathtaking can’t be compressed effectively into either of those mediums. Somehow the scale always gets lost. It seems the most appropriate reaction to these things in real life is to stand and stare (or pose for pictures in front of them).
The West has the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, the buttes and mesas recognisable from classic western movies and Roadrunner cartoons. Further north there’s a chance of running into a Wizard-of-Ozlike tornado which, as it turns out, can be house levelling.
The east coast also has its monuments, the most iconic of which is probably the Statue of Liberty, beautiful in spite of the patina of blue-green corrosion that is the inevitable fate of all copper, especially when its final resting place leaves it exposed to salty harbour air.
As an outsider experiencing the difference of a land and culture which I mistakenly thought would be familiar, I was surprised by how much and how quickly I developed a strong affection for this overwhelming, complex and strangely beautiful place. This body of work is an attempt to represent some of the things mentioned above as they look and how they felt.
