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Jim Fisher "Essential Gestures" If Nelson's work represents a faith in judgment, Lasker's gives a hopefulness that meaning is still possible and Krisanamis and McClelland each in their own way hold out the possibility of a meaningful trace of sentiment, then for James Nares, painting offers the possibility of its own glorious past. There is the memory of a time when painting was heroic, grand and eloquent in his work. The dilemma is, though, that in this day and age, it is useless to emulate such past glories.
Nares's paintings are pictures of the lush, decorative husk left in the wake of the depletion of Abstract Expressionism and the assault of mechanical reproduction on our senses. Their beauty and virtuosity appeal to us, being all that we would want. But as these iconic images twist and turn in on themselves, they become mere shadows, cut off from any claim to authenticity. All that is left to us is a world in which appearances are everything and seduction constitutes both content and concept. Their photographic quality evokes the spirit of the original, but does not attempt to embody it. It is in the effects of their stylization and seeming repeatability that the meaning of these calligraphic brushstrokes appears. Through these paintings, Nares seemingly insists that we confront the fact that the authentic can only be called up by its absence and that the simulacrum, rather than satisfying us, stimulates our desire for the real. |
