UR-TEMPLE

Ian James

October 9 – Nov 14, 2021
Opening Reception Sat Oct 9 / 6-9pm

Schedule Appointment

She bathes.
Separation dissolves the State as the mechanical
kingdom,
and has chemical effects on intelligence.
Here the sheaf idea can illustrate the opening of
new sites,
new syntheses,
the grand vision of generalizing topology.
She sings of instinct
- Maure Coise, Geophilosophical Branding

The Fulcrum is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Ian James, collectively calle UR-TEMPLE. The work is an exploration of the metaphysics of technology and its integration into the human body as a support structure for life and as a means to facilitate increasingly more fluid and efficient exchange. A number of the works in the exhibition derive from the artist and his partner’s recent experience of having a baby and the uneven support for mothers, infants, and their partners amidst societal expectations for a non-interruption of labor output.

In her book, Cosmophenomenology, Wangyoung Kim theorizes on our universe’s omnipresent dark energy as a carrier and inscriber of consciousness atop electrons. This theory allows for the consciousness to exist within all matter, recycling endlessly. The work is interested in how this cosmological constant of consciousness provides a metaphysic and a will for our electronic devices, rendering them as spiritual technology given electricity’s role (through electrons) in consciousness.

The exhibition features a large scale photograph of the California State General Services Administration building in Sacramento, and smaller photographs of a fetal heart monitor, breast pumps, bottle sterilizers, and zero gravity outdoor recliners in cast aluminum frames. A custom chaise paired with a virtual reality environment invites participants to loiter an astral plane surrounded by images falling in low gravity. The images derive from the artist’s archive of healing and spiritual technology-related photographs. Within this virtual space, images are given a bodily monumentality for the viewer to position themselves alongside as they transit. Finally, the artist has produced a new coin in the form of a bathroom token in an edition of 3000. The token is usable for restroom access within the Far East Plaza.

Ian James lives and works in Los Angeles. He has had solo exhibitions at Five Car Garage (Santa Monica, CA), Hernando’s Hideaway (Miami, FL), and Vacancy (Los Angeles) and participated in two-person and group exhibitions at Holiday Forever (Jackson, WY) the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, the UNLV Barrick Museum, Roberts Projects (LA), REDCAT (LA), Self Actualization (Houston), and was an artist in residence at SÍM in Reykjavik, Iceland and the The Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY).

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