As Heard From Mars

Illuminated Average #5
Lightbox with Duratrans print, 24″ x 18″

Over the past twenty years, Jim Campbell has played with, digressed from, re-incorporated, and made his name with interactive installation.

As the definition of art is subjective in this modern day and age, and that the meaning of the term artist has so drastically changed over the past century, today many people would agree with the fact that art can be virtually anything. This is why I wish to first give my own definition of an artist to properly and accurately describe Jim Campbell’s work within my own views, and to further help describe all artists of which I shall talk about in the future. An artist is more than a creator, he or she is someone who can suggest symbolism or meaning within their work, who demonstrate skill in technique and agility with materials, and most of all, someone who can make something visually rich and stimulating for the eye, and aesthetically appealing – that perhaps suggests something aesthetic that the untrained mind may not comprehend, yet that one still feels is beautiful beneath the surface.

Based on this definition, I would prefer to call Jim Campbell an electronic and technical mastermind rather than an artist. This is in no way or form to discredit the man or his work, but people are not automatically artists just because they have come up with new techniques or ideas that push this world further. Mr. Campbell has been labelled something that he is not. It’s the same as if someone would have called an electrician a computer technician.

Indeed, he is, in my opinion, an innovator in terms of technique. Indeed, the works that he produces aren’t always  aesthetically or visually interesting or pleasing, but overall they always present something technologically new and pertinent. What Mr. Campbell has come up with are techniques that can be used as new mediums that artists can use to express themselves.

It’s fine to expose your work in a gallery or museum, but let them be more specific to the practice. Just because something is new, or different, or because it has a meaning that is well depicted, does not make it art, and does not mean that it should be exposed in an art gallery. Perhaps there should be technological advancements in terms of technique galleries, if you catch my drift.

The first picture is a frame by frame superimposition of the entire Fleming’s The Wizard Of Oz movie. The picture is visually stimulating, but this is only credible to the Mr. Campbell to the extent that he put it together. The real art here is the movie itself, and the technical aspect is what can be produced by superimposing its frames one over the other. Ultimately, anyone could have done this, but he thought of it first.