My practice researches the role that art can play in enabling an experience of connection, between self and place.
I use both my individual experiences, and participatory methods, to develop an understanding of embodied and situated approaches to learning. Informed by performance and land-art practices, crafts processes and pedagogical research, my work responds to the urgent need to develop new ways of seeing and being with the more than human world, in this time of ecological crisis.
My artwork is multi-disciplinary, comprising of intimate objects formed in the hand whilst walking, larger sculptures that echo my bodily experiences, and video pieces that collage imagery and sound together, to evoke the experience of moving through a landscape.
Objects are either formed from materials collected on-site, or constructed in the studio from resources such as clothing, maps and natural history illustrations. Artworks can also incorporate photographic imagery, drawing and text.
My work in educational settings, including museums, schools and universities, feeds into and informs my individual practice. Children’s playful explorations of place, for instance, offer me opportunities to research the innate capacities that we are born with, and the opportunities these offer us to experience connection through making.
www.jamesaldridge-artist.co.uk
https://jamesaldridgeart.wordpress.com/
