If you have ever (even remotely) followed James Kirkpatrick’s career as a hip-hop/noise maker and visual artist (urban or otherwise), you will already know that his art is in a near-constant state of evolution. He is always staring past a horizon most of us have yet to be conscious of. And so it is with this latest collection of work in Before the End that celebrates a new phase of painting he has employed for the last year —thick forms layered on top of each other without evidence of his usual subtractions; blobs and concrete forms replacing scratches, cuts and non-linear marks. The results are less figurative, resembling instead floating structural imaginations of a nether world. If the 2D looks alien (and it should!) then the sound sculptures, built around circuit-bent toys and discarded electronics (the sounds of which are included on a seven-inch record at the back) will bring it all home. Add to that a download card that gives access to Thesis Sahib’s latest CD of the same name and this is the ultimate culmination of his expanding vision. For now.
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James Kirkpatrick’s point of sail
This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2011.