Interwoven existence
James Randall
- Sitter: James Randall
- Medium: Digital Artwork
- Dimensions: 76cm x 76cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
2024 Metro Arts Experimental Prize
Proudly supported by
Metro Arts
About the artwork
This unusual self portrait starts with 1000 photographs from James Randall’s life. “Images of me with loved ones and my passions, the good times and the not so good, and images of me along with my beloved hobbies and surroundings.”
Each of the lines you can see in the portrait is a single, slice of one original photo, one pixel wide, carefully extracted digitally, and layered into a new image.
“To accentuate the woven nature, each fibre of photo has been individually warped to represent the fluidity of the fabric of my existence – as it changes across time and space and weaves through the lives of others.”
The resulting interconnectedness gives a completely different image of a person. James Randall considers it a more complete picture.
“Creating a single image portrait to represent any one soul may not give as dimensional an insight as a more conceptual approach. A more accurate portrait, perhaps, needs more representation across a life.
“In this image one pixel wide slices from 1,000 of my personal photos have been layered vertically and horizontally – woven into a single representation of me.”
About the artist
James Randall is a Brisbane artist and member of the Royal Queensland Art Society. He has a Bachelor in Visual Communication from Sydney Institute of Technology. After a successful corporate design career, he began focusing on art in 2020. James has been a finalist in the Kilgour Prize, several RQAS awards and the Brisbane Portrait Prize.
Judge's Notes
Existence conceptually redefines portraiture, portraying not just a fleeting moment, but an intricate tapestry of moments in time. By capturing pixel slices from 1,000 personal photographs to create an abstracted self-portrait, Randall offers an alternative to the representation of self. This approach reflects the essence of human experience, encapsulating the sum of our life’s moments. Randall’s work skilfully balances positive and negative space, employing a cohesive strategy to unify the composition.”
