Project Space
So Near
James Murnane
So near seeks to combine James’ research interests of sacred art and contemporary non-representative art making, in the hope of offering small moments of revelation and dissipation in small abstract icons. He has long been fascinated by the aesthetic, historical, and spiritual depth of Byzantine iconography and mosaics, and Gothic stained glass. Traditionally, such images act as windows for communication, the gazing back and forth between persons on opposite sides of eternity/mortality. Having simultaneously been captured by contemporary abstraction with its myriad languages, James has adopted some of the visual and spiritual elements of these forms of sacred art into the non-representative context. This is in order to open up the possibility of an experience at first visceral, and then maybe even spiritual; where form, light and meaning are at times vivid, yet just as quickly slip away.
