James Payne

Born:

1983, Chicago, IL

Currently resides : Evanston, IL

Undergraduate School/year/degree:

BA, Architecture and Sculpture, Bennington College, VT, 2006

Selected Exhibitions:

Gallery 901, Evanston, IL , 2006

Selected Awards:

Franconia Sculpture Park Open Studio Artist, 2007

Franconia Sculpture Park Intern Artist Fellowship, 2006

Artist Statement:

Cultivating a density in light, I didn't want the aperture to be about the view out, but more about a communion with light within the space. I feel there is a strong connection between memory and place, and within a truly lucid environment we experience an erosion of memory and a new/immediate experience with space. Memory does hold a rich experience of space, but in another sense acts as a buffer, shielding body from place. In sacrificing memory, we are granted a more immediate intimacy with space.

The structure, of the 28 panels that comprise the aperture, is an attempt to read light, facilitating both a sharp slicing and smooth refraction. The panels carry the stronger light through and bar the softer light so that it becomes its own volume within the aperture. The result is an experience with multiple densities of light simultaneously. Qualities of light within the space change throughout the day and, more dramatically, throughout the year as the sun travels in its descent. The roof spans 33 feet of the 36 foot space, leaving 3 feet of the aperture open in order to funnel light in from above. This also serves to keep the seam where the walls of the aperture meet the roof from regrouping in a two dimensional plane, but instead the corners redirect themselves in a perspectival seam with the sky. The space's title is "evening" which is meant as a verb, to even the light within the sky's terrain.