Past Exhibit

The Art of James Cook

exhibit: September 19 - October 7, 2005
reception: October 7, 2005

The work of James Cook is bound together by a commitment to thinking about fundamental existential questions. The current exhibition in the George Caleb Bingham Gallery reflects a shift from solitary objects to video and sound embedded assemblages.

The sound elements emanate from individual speakers or from clusters of them having specified locations relevant to the character of the sound and the image context. An example is the sound sculpture, Voices Passing in the Night, which includes a “dialogue” between a youthful, acolyte voice and a mature, authoritative voice. The text for this piece is culled from the Sumarian epic Gilgamesh, and from Mechanization Takes Command (S. Giedion).

The moving images used in Cook’s work are either recorded on super 8 film or with digital video cameras. The film/video images are then projected onto objects or screens, or are viewed on monitors ranging in size from about 2.5 inches to larger projected images.

The impetus to combine manipulated objets trouves with electronic media stems from Cook’s commitment to the idea that the former have a high potential to resonate poetically, while the electronic media generate a psychological/emotional immediacy that can be effectively used when planted in this poetic field. When ordinary objects are transformed through casting techniques or by juxtaposition with other images, they become removed from the associative, rational present. They readily perform as metaphor, and are thereby poetic.

Cook’s work conceptually explores the conjunction of directional impulses (physical and metaphorical) in our moment-to-moment existence. These points of shifting have the potential to yield balance and orientation (psychological and spiritual). On the other hand, they often yield confusion, dissatisfaction, or apprehension, rather than equilibrium. He is in our choices, how we are often distracted and do not see our options at these momentary junctures.

For Cook, the importance of the present hinges upon some very basic ontological questions. As humans, we operate within self-constructed orientation strategies based upon cultural paradigms and biases. There is constant shifting regarding “factual” information within the sciences, and no consensus within philosophic and spiritual systems. He is interested in the individual and collective orientation avenues we create, or more passively acquire—with death, perhaps, as the ultimate stimulus to seek clarity in our existential situation.

The exhibition will be held in the George Caleb Bingham Gallery and will run from September 19 to October 7, 2005. There will be an opening reception on Friday, October 7th from 5:30-8:30 pm, which is free and open to the public and will include refreshments. The reception is in conjunction with the MU Gallery Crawl.

Click on each image on the right to see the larger one.
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American Book of the Dead:
Ascension/Descension
2002-3
Bronze, cast iron, wood, digital video,
LCD monitor, DVD player
94 x 32 x 34 inches
(detail)

American Book of the Dead:
La Victoire de Sans-Une-Trace
2001-2
Plaster, steel, mirror, copper, gold,
grinder mechanism
102 ”x 108 x 30 inches
(detail)

Economics of Vertical Inclination
1999
Steel, beeswax, bees, leather
80 x 14 x 7 inches
(detail)

Supplicant II
1997
bronze, steel, cinnamon
88 x 40 x 40 inches
(detail)

Voices Passing in the Night
2004
Wood, porcelain, mercury,
audio and electronic equipment
49 x 22 x 18 inches
(detail)

American Book of the Dead:
The Mechanics of Prayer
2001-2
cast iron, steel, wood, mirror,
copper, gold, rope
122 x 103 x 38 inches
(detail)

Cartesian Oar for Lao Tsu’s Stream
1999
wood, water
74 x 20 x 12 inches
(detail)

Philosophy of Tides
2004
canvas, wood, bronze, beeswax,
steel, pigments
103 x 37 x 25 inches
(detail)
 

Vertical Inclination given Temporary Support
by an Apparition of a scaffold
in the Form of the Khufu Pyramid
1996
red oak (1000’), bronze, rope
(detail)
 

Water Compass in Three Chapters
2004
Beech wood keel, beeswax, steel,
plaster, video and projector
92 x 40 x 25 inches
(detail)

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