Depictions of the natural world are something that have concerned artists from the very first cave paintings. James Aldridge is interested in how we read images of nature in relation to things outside of purely representing the natural world. Often these depictions are presented for their perceived beauty or decorative value which goes against how we value contemporary art. In the reading of these images we project many other references to come to some understanding and to tell us a story about what we are looking at. We internalise the outside, unknown world. This can relate to folklore or superstition and can often have a darker meaning. Aldridge is interested in this opposition between beauty and darkness as it seems to give these representations a kind of tension. On one hand we can indulge in the beauty of the colours of say, a bird’s plumage, and on the other hand a single magpie or crow can can be a portent of something ominous. Our readings often have little to do with the reality of the natural world and are more about an internal story we tell ourselves and that is comprised of many experiences we have had of these representations. We can believe in the images as a truth about the world around us and they can be about something else altogether.
Aldridge borrows from many, seemingly incongruous visual languages: botanical illustrations, wallpaper design, field guides, abstraction and renaissance painting for example. These languages don’t sit together easily and in some ways getting them to work together to create a coherent whole also adds tension and surprise.
Aldridge employs certain strategies and processes in the making of his work. In the painting nothing is decided beforehand. They begin with an element of chance, the ground is laid down through pouring and spraying of ink and paint and the result will suggest a starting point on the canvas.
"Each decision is a reaction to the previous one and in this way the image evolves on its own. This process also allows me to engage with the work in a much more intuitive way where I can begin to have a dialogue with what is happening without controlling it. I'm seeking the point where the painting feels it is coming into being on its own, generating itself."
In the work 'Slow Burn' he has been thinking about pace and speed in the painting. Not only the extended time Aldridge had to work on it but also the way the speed or pace of the elements of the work are described. For instance inverting the wolves immediately suggests the velocity of falling or the opposite, like they are floating. This is a reminder that even though the work contains all the elements of landscape painting it is not a conventional landscape. It is something other than that. Using repetitive elements more familiar in mechanical reproduction such as the dots forming the the streams from the eyes of the birds there is also a kind of slower more drifting pace. These forms act as a way into the painting and because of its size the viewer is led around the the work and is offered points in and out of the image. This is much like the journey Aldridge experiences when the painting reveals itself during the painting process, sometimes quickly, sometimes really slowly. The birds can be seen as central characters and he's noticed that when the eyes are painted they become a natural focus for the image. Aldridge wanted to do something with this idea where amongst the beauty and decoration a connection is made between these characters that is odd, jarring and in some way unsettling. In other works he has often used a drip of red paint that can suggest the birds are vomiting blood that acts in a similar way. However it is also a reminder that this deals with the language of paint, after all it is just a drip of paint or a dot of pigment from the brush tip that is in a way evidence of a real moment in time, a real action.
Accumulation is also something he thinks about when making the work. Aldridge mentioned repetition and that he like the way a dot or a schematic flower which wouldn’t do anything on its own can be repeated many times until it is transformed into something else that charges the surface of the painting as well as having a kind of odd presence. Accumulation is also important in terms of the imagery, the work comes in and out of focus as it accumulates more and more information and this is one of the difficult things in knowing when the work is complete. How much is too much?
"If I get it wrong the images will collapse and stop being believable and I have to go through it all again. This demands reflection and focus and with the size of this work the same is demanded of the viewer because the image cannot be taken in as a whole."