Phil James

This collection brings together three of Phil James’ interventionist paintings, exploring science fiction tropes and the notion of ‘speculative histories’ through paintings on found images. As what he defines as narrative paintings, these works explore the science-fiction concept of “Uchronia”, a term which refers to a hypothetical time period of our world, in contrast to altogether fictional lands or worlds.

Narrative painting has always interested me, the idea of leading the viewer into a dialogue with the work. The inspiration here comes from the original “Planet of the Apes” (1968) where Charlton Heston’s character discovers the decaying remains of The Statue of Liberty on the shoreline. That idea of a stranger in time is beautiful to me, playing with the familiar and the unreal.

Stranger In Strange Land

Blue Boi was one of my earliest interventionist paintings and remains a favourite. In this work, originally by William Gainsborough, the young man is given a “Warriors / Clockwork Orange-esque" makeover, his confident gaze can now almost be mistaken as that of a menacing “Droog”, made famous by Malcolm Mcdowell's portrayal of the murderous Alex.

Oil on Vintage Offset Lithograph