It is almost like an emotional texture, the breathe of cool air on your lungs in the early morning mist. I can’t wait to see what possibilities unfold next for the artist from this starting point for this is the very beginning of the path, a scratching of the surface of what is possible with this technique and themes. Here the new order of things is a thing of beauty to behold the works draw you in with their colour and detail, their presence. “The carnival offers the chance to have a new outlook on the world, to realise the relative nature of all that exists, and to enter a completely new order of things.”1 As Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin notes, In Future’s lovecraft (2009, below) incredible creatures again inhabit the imagined biospheric carnivalesque worlds. In Willow weep 2 (2009, above) the tree of life is inhabited by creatures and a human figure (see halfway up on the right-hand side). In Livin’ on a prayer (2009, above) we have a splendid Carnival of the Animals as monkeys and creatures inhabit a boat sprouting flowers riding upon a sea made of flowers. On the flip side of the equation are works that are physically complex, conceptually robust and simply beautiful in their execution: no wonder so many of them have sold already! Using basic graphic patterns repeated and inverted (Jamison has an interest in graphics fostered through textile design), Jamison constructs fantasy worlds, fairytales on paper.
They lack a certain spark, that revelatory presence and appear flat both physically and metaphorically. The paintings of the owl ( Last star, 2009 below), raccoons ( Can you see my aura 2009, below) together with another fairytale painting With a roof of flint and a floor of chalk (2009) fail to communicate a shared vision being disparate items that conceptually don’t seem to hang well together.
The latter large and small paintings fail to hit the spot with the exception of Belong to me (2009, below) which has visual and conceptual links to the works on paper, the twin bodies dissolving into a kaleidoscopic dream-like effervescence of life. Exhibition dates: 22nd September – 17th October 2009Īlthough all the work in this exhibition is dated 2009 this exhibition can fairly easily be divided into what seems to be two separate bodies of work: the excellent gouache, pen and vinyl works of paper and the ‘other’ less successful large paintings of owls and raccoons and the smaller paintings of hanging flowers and tree branches on dark purple ground.
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