JAMES DENMARK
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Objects of Affection represents one extreme of Denmark’s art, including as many different forms as possible, jamming them against each other. In this piece he pushes that idea so far that the work hovers on the brink of chaos. But in most of the other collages, audacious contrasts are balanced by an almost classical sense of order. The background in the collage Boy With Red Pants suggests a grid, with a row of rectangles at the top; even the boy’s outline has as many nearly straight edges as it does curves. His pants are a splotchy, streaky pattern of red and white that echoes without exactly duplicating adjacent patches of mottled color. Just behind his pants is an irregular blue and white field that might be a dimly rephotographed mountain landscape.
The audacity of this juxtaposition, in which a tiny part of the world–a pair of pants–seems to suggest a vast landscape, is characteristic of Denmark’s work. By juxtaposing elements according to similarities and contrasts in their shapes and colors, he calls attention to the sensual beauty of each form. The freedom with which he combines these elements left me open to seeing the sensual qualities of all the things around me–from the dirtiest building wall to the purest blue sky.
Most of the faces in Denmark’s work include some detail, if only a few lines to suggest an expression. Often patterns in the face are linked to the background: the vertical brush strokes on the boy’s face in Junebug seem akin to the streaked purple background to the right of his head. But a few of the faces are devoid of detail; often formed of cutout black paper, they stand at the center like powerful voids. Such faces make for some of Denmark’s strangest and strongest work.
