James Faure Walker: Undecided 2: Market Research in the Narrow Way

Artist(s):

• James Faure Walker

Title:

Undecided 2: Market Research in the Narrow Way

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 1998: Touchware

Creation Year:

1997

Medium:

Inkjet Print

Size:

43" x 40"

Category:

• 2D & Wall-Hung

Keywords:

• abstract
• digital photography
• ink jet print

Artist Statement:

I like the idea of capturing inconsequential slices of life and weaving them into the fabric of a picture: shoppers carrying bags, the cup of coffee to avoid doing the work. As an abstract painter, I needed this extra dimension, this extra texture of the ordinary: pigeons on the pavement like touches of the brush. I have been wondering whether the confusion I feel as a painter working both physically and digitally couldn’t be a creative starting point. Sometimes there’s a point in making pieces that are about being aimless, just absorbing whatever you come across walking down the street.

Undecided, a mix of digital snapshots and drawing, feels its way round the surface. In Market Research, I happened to record in a sequence of eight shots a young mother of two being stopped by a market researcher. I was impressed by the children’s patience. The Narrow Way is the name of the street in Hackney, London, in the picture. Now I think about it, I suppose it’s also a narrow kind of improvisation, as everything stems from those eight shots from the digital camera.