James de Villiers
Johannesburg, South Africa
My art is a meditation on nature and an investigation of the forces that lie behind outward appearances
MessageCollection: Art on Paper Collection
A collection of mainly silkscreen serial monotypes and monoprints printed over hand-painted backgrounds or screenprint combinations and digital imagery. Also including paintings and drawings on paper. These artworks are an exploration of chaos, decay, and transformation, drawing inspiration from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), particle physics, ancient Hindu and Eastern cosmology, and the natural cycles of life and death. Central to this practice is the use of "randomized silkscreen printing", a technique that allows me to capture the unpredictable and ever-changing nature of these processes. In my work, I employ silkscreen printing in a way that embraces randomness and imperfection.
The layers of ink, colors, and patterns are applied in a deliberately unpredictable manner, reflecting the chaotic interactions of particles within the LHC, the disintegration of flowers and vegetation, and the cyclical dance of creation and destruction in Hindu cosmology. This method mirrors the inherent unpredictability of decay and the beauty that arises from it. The randomization in my silkscreen printing is not merely a technique, but a philosophical approach that mirrors the underlying concepts of my art.
Just as particles decay and new forms emerge from chaos, each print is unique, hence the production, not of the traditional print editions, but monotypes and monoprints—an unpredictable outcome of overlapping patterns, colors, and textures. The decay of flowers and vegetation is echoed in the layering and erosion of prints, where each pass of the screen may add or subtract from the image, creating a dynamic and evolving composition. This approach allows me to explore the transient nature of life, where beauty and impermanence are intertwined. The randomness in my prints embodies the concept of decay as a process full of potential, where chaos leads to new forms and unexpected beauty.
It is a visual representation of the cyclical nature of existence, where every ending is also a beginning. Through this process, my artwork becomes a dialogue between control and chance, order and chaos. By embracing the unpredictable, I create a space where the viewer can engage with the fundamental processes of transformation that permeate the natural world, the cosmos, and our own lives. My silkscreen prints are not just images but moments of captured chaos, each one a reflection of the dynamic and ever-changing nature of reality.
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