Page 125 - 9781909825086_interior_cover.indd

James Elliott Dixon
Born 1980
Lives and works in Glasgow, UK
www.jameselliotdixon.com

James Elliott Dixon proposes a re-evaluation of everyday interior
and exterior spaces. Through his work we are asked to consider how
our perception of room or landscape is infl uenced by familiarity.
Shadow and colour are used diametrically to create zones of
intense simplifi ed reality that appear to exist within a larger physical
or metaphysical space. This de-familiarisation gives the work an alien
feel. We see new lands and phenomena, yet it is clear that we have
not travelled far; a re-enchantment that reminds us that pleasure in
the unknown is everywhere.
07:16 is from the series ‘Domestic Space’ winner of the 2013 Jill Todd
Award. Taking the theme of ‘home’, Dixon explored a contradiction
of scale to produce a series of hallucinatory works, as he explains in
his own words:
‘Home, at its most vivid, exists in the memories formed during our fi rst
encounters with the world. At this early stage the garden gate lies
at the edge of the known universe. Detail precedes scale and an
intimate and unique relationship between mind and place is formed.
By limiting the pallet of ‘Domestic Space’ to my own, over-familiar
environment, I returned briefl y to a microfi lm world of upholstery
horizons. Evidently, the mind deplores a vacuum... but not a Hoover!
This strange dimensional relativity between internal and external
space is something I think we all share and something I fi nd really
fascinating. It felt almost that I had to unlearn to make this work,
fi nding in the process, a completely new perspective in the last
place I would expect to fi nd it.’

JAMES ELLIOTT DIXON graduated with BA (Hons) Fine Art Photography from
the Glasgow School of Art (2013) after having attained FdA Commercial
Photographic Practice from Newcastle College (2005). He was awarded the
Royal Scottish Academy’s John Kinross Scholarship in 2013 and has exhibited in a
number of group shows including; The Open West, The Wilson, Cheltenham, UK
(2014), Espy Photography Award, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK (2014), 2013 Jill
Todd Award, Streetlevel Photoworks, Glasgow, UK (2013), Futureproof, Peacock
Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK (2013) Between the Darkness and the Deep Blue
Sea. Glasgow School of Art, Degree show, Glasgow, UK (2013), GSA Fine Art
Photography Show. Glue Factory, Glasgow, UK (2012)

Top: 07:16, 2013, C-Type Photograph.
h: 113cm w: 92cm d: 2cm, Artist’s Collection.
Top right: 11.32, 2013, C-Type Photograph.
h: 93cm w: 112cm d: 2cm, Artist’s Collection.
Far right: After the Fire, 2013, C-Type Photograph.
h: 93cm w: 112cm d: 2cm, Royal Scottish Academy Permanent Collection.
Right: Black Pool, 2013, C-Type Photograph.
h: 123cm w: 150cm d: 2cm, Private Collection.

124 125