In ancestral mythologies, all the way to modern history, civilizations and populations keep believes going with stories, fables or philosophical precepts connected to the figure of twin brothers. For example, the Ashvins (the horse possessors), interpreted as the “Nasatya” by the Hindus, the Dioscures (Castor and Pollux in the Greek culture) and Romulus and Remus, the Rome founders and builders. The figure of twins is a key element of the founding myths of our culture and literature.
To explore further the question of duality and, on the contrary, of the absolute, the Yorubas (West African ethno-linguistic group) tend to believe that each human being is waiting for its spiritual counterpart to come. In the twins’ case they are coming to live simultaneously and are bonded forever. They need to respect and cherish each other to maintain balance and harmony.
James Cherry highlights these bonds by dealing with themes of time and memory and by creating a particular overlap between these different notions and the way it can blur the boundaries of audience understanding.
He is searching for an emotional path to pursue a personal artistic transcription in a way that he could transliterate his feelings. To do so, he decided to “recut” and rewrite memories and idealize scenarios mashed up with interpretations, translations and personal statements. James Cherry is the artist who recreates memories of best friends and loved ones, he is the protector of splendor and intact memories. To create a contrast to this "solidity" James Cherry uses very fragile and delicate techniques that echo the "dust" as something ephemeral.
Similarly, the relationship with the “other self”, with his own double, is at the center of James Cherry's artistic reflection, in which the desire to want to undo his "double identity" is being manifested.
To be a twin is to be privy to something intimate and mysterious. Twinnedness - the condition of being one of two - carries a confidential charge, perceived only vaguely from the outside. Such bonds are the subject of James Cherry's “Split second”, an expression that refers both to non-identical twins and to the similarity and affinity felt between individuals. «Twins find other twins», Cherry explains. Hence a group of four lamps handmade by the artist that reflect specularly and shed light on four large new drawings to share the rhythms of private joy with those beyond its immediate sphere.
Cherry's light sculptures, which also appear simply as “lamps”, are vibrant and bulbous, seemingly as delicate as sea foam, and are similarly composed of an organic pulp: a combination of residue swept from his studio floor mixed with sawdust, paper and coconut shells. Their hues are made through reclaimed fabric nets stretched over forms and painted with layers of resin. The luminous bodies attract Cherry because of their ability to condition the reading of the surroundings. By slightly altering the tones and contours of the space in which they are located, they maintain a certain control over the environments in which they are placed (and therefore, a control over how the object itself is seen). The artist explains: «I create my artworks with the purpose to destine them to all “the others”».
At the same time, his drawings appear as memories extracted from drawing blocks; Cherry has developed a graphic structure consisting of a densely interwoven and overlapping symbols, like those of a child, to prevent others from easy reading. (VVB)
«I think of being a twin as a second split in two, the results of which living parallel forever. The art that I make is continuously exploring this narrative, but I thought it would be interesting to visualize that moment of creation; to make physical when a moment in time starts being experienced by two beings simultaneously. I seek out this duality in the world around me as well as in imaginary scenarios. To me this exhibition is the result of what I’ve found in doing so.
Being a twin, I’ve lived my life thinking about the other since the moment of our conception. I constantly think of two entities rather than one. I’m interested in exploring two perspectives of the same subject matter: a moment in time, an image, a person, a thought; these two different perspectives characterize each other in a way that educates and inspires me (and hopefully the viewer) in relation to the subject represented in new and exciting ways.
I grew up in a small family between the suburbs and the city of Chicago. My twin brother and I shared everything and still do. I’ve lived my life being the watcher of a parallel life created simultaneously next to mine. As a kid our lives were so identical to one another that sometimes it felt like I got to make two choices at the same time or made the same decision twice.
This show was an opportunity for me to revisit that feeling and remind myself of how specific it is to being a twin, in hopes of sharing that unique feeling with others. Camouflaging and concealing oneself or an object can be used as a means to blend in and not disrupt. This idea is something that I think twins can relate to, because we’re often thought of as a unit, especially at the beginning of our lives.
Our identity to ourselves and the identity other people perceive is formed through comparing one to the other, looking for defying features.
Twins make this hard: we’re born with an indistinguishable quality from one another. We naturally disguise ourselves as each other.
Growing up gay in the Midwestern America and going to public school, being queer always meant having to disguise myself, and I carried that even well into adulthood. I was constantly forced to present a certain level of masculinity or femininity as a way of bringing comfort, safety, and validation. Gay people are often times forced to be in disguise to fit in with societal norms. Shame just as easily causes us to disguise ourselves for our own personal acceptance.
I play with this idea of disguise through all of the work in this show: with the lamps, the closer you get to them the more the variables in the process show themselves. At first, they look like glass, and because they’re lamps there is already an expectation for them to be glass. But as you get closer the glass quality fades. You can notice they’re made from the pigment of the glue beneath the resin being unique to each piece, the weave of the fabric with all its pilling and tears.
The drawings look like photographs at first glance, fading with further inspection. You notice parts of the image that have been erased: the stain of those marks adds a texture and history that a simple photograph couldn’t convey.
Cheap and discarded fabric is elevated to look like glass and serve function. Photographic images presented as detailed drawings. Weak materials as strong. Precarious shapes as stable and functional. All of these to me are elements of disguise. The work I am driven to make has secrets that reveal themselves with further inspection and time. The experience of being a twin is solitary and idiosyncratic, and disguise is an aspect I hope to shed more light on.
I hope that this work lets people in to familiarize themselves with some of these unique feelings». (JC)
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In ancestral mythologies, all the way to modern history, civilizations and populations keep believes going with stories, fables or philosophical precepts connected to the figure of twin brothers. For example, the Ashvins (the horse possessors), interpreted as the “Nasatya” by the Hindus, the Dioscures (Castor and Pollux in the Greek culture) and Romulus and Remus, the Rome founders and builders. The figure of twins is a key element of the founding myths of our culture and literature.
To explore further the question of duality and, on the contrary, of the absolute, the Yorubas (West African ethno-linguistic group) tend to believe that each human being is waiting for its spiritual counterpart to come. In the twins’ case they are coming to live simultaneously and are bonded forever. They need to respect and cherish each other to maintain balance and harmony.
James Cherry highlights these bonds by dealing with themes of time and memory and by creating a particular...
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