castle keep 1 - 30.11.03 - cheapart
James Dean Diamond
By the same artist
1-30.11.07 The Bleak Existence of a Synthetic
20-24.5.05 Death in a Place Like This
It is through the sublime qualities within the photographic work of «Castle Keep» that James Dean Diamond seeks to explore the realms of fantasy. A body of work, which challenges the conventional notion that fashion images strive to make clothing their pivotal theme. The intention is to decontextualise fashion photography and place it into a contemporary visual arts arena.
ΤCastle KeepΥ creates Τsuper-realitiesΥ through the characters and portraits that inhabit this fictional and romantic world. Employing various lighting techniques and utilising a digital process an overall visual synthesis is achieved, which pursues the ongoing visceral inquiry that functions within DiamondΥs oeuvre. The depiction of the beauteous, static and solitary figure is key in conveying a place of escapism. The desire to delve into a fictitious environment is a longing to be removed from the Τreal lifeΥ genre of photography and its obsession with documenting the monotony of normality and the mundane aspect of ones lives, which has permeated much of the current British culture.
There are references made from disparate historical sources that include renaissance portraiture and the gothic age. The use of lighting and pallet adhere to the painting sensibility of the renaissance period, while the haute-couture garments that adorn these females echo the way in which the lavish garments were worn by the gentility of this time. The gothic era is located in the tales of knights and maidens. In addition to this, the black and white imagery gives the subject matter a darker, more sinister dimension and is also a direct influence from DiamondΥs gothic punk youth, when he was always surrounded by haunting and theatrical female characters.
Curator Samia Ashraf