graduate school directory 2011/12 - Camberwell College of Arts ...

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fAURE WALKER James
READER
BiOgrAPhY James Faure Walker (b. 1948
London) studied at St Martins (1966–70) and
the RCA (1970–72). He co-founded Artscribe
magazine in 1976, and edited it for eight years.
He has been integrating computer graphics in
his painting since 1988. Recent group exhibitions
include Jerwood Drawing Prize (2010); Digital
Pioneers at the V&A (2009); Imaging by Numbers,
Block Museum, Illinois, USA (2008); Siggraph,
USA (eight times 1995–2007); DAM Gallery, Berlin
(2003, 2005, 2009). In 1998, he won the ‘Golden
Plotter’ at Computerkunst, Gladbeck, Germany.
In 2010, he produced a com missioned print
for the 2010 South African World Cup. His book,
Painting the Digital River: How an Artist Learned
to Love the Computer (2006, Prentice Hall, USA),
won a New England Book Show Award. He is
Reader in Painting and the Computer in the CCW
Grad uate School.
rESEArCh StAtEMENt The how-to-draw books
from the first decades of the twentieth century
offer a view of drawing somewhat at odds with
the way we think about drawing today. There was
more dependence on drawing from memory,
and more commercial illustration. The technical
tips and preferred examples resemble the
DIY approach of today’s paint software. ‘Digital
drawing’ is not a tidy category. The weird
pens and drastic modifiers have turned old habits
upside down, and drawing and painting are
not as dis tinct as they were.
I have collected around a hundred such publications,
and plan to write a book around them.
There are spin-offs too, and these get into my
painting, such as how students were taught
‘observational skills’. A 1931 British Army ‘Small
Arms Training’ manual provides diagrams
for constructing targets for shooting ranges and
bayonet practice. The ‘figure’ – or its ‘traces’
– may be a subject for drawing conferences today,
but here the figure – lying down, moving across,
approaching – is a target, and a compelling motif.
Accurate ‘seeing’ is a matter of life and death.
SELECtED OUtPUtS AND AChiEVEMENtS
SELECTED ESSAYS ON DRAWING
2011 ‘Drawing Trees’, invited paper for Drawing Connections
– China Risk and Revolution, October 26–28, Lu Xun
Academy of Art, Dalian, China; International Drawing
Research Institute College of fine Art, UNSW, Australia.
2011 (September) ‘Painting further along the River’, invited
paper at ISEA Istanbul.
2011 (february) ‘The Past and Present of the Digital Manual’,
paper at the Recto/Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook
conference, University of Lincoln.
2011 ‘Getting Closer to Nature: Artists in the Lab’, in:
Biologically-inspired Computing for the Arts: Scientific
Data through Graphics, IGI Global, USA.
2011 (June) ‘On Not Being Able to Draw a Mousetrap’, in:
Journal of Creative Interfaces & Computer Graphics.
http://bit.ly/MTXDk www.igi-global.com/IJCICG
2010 (December) ‘Drawing Machines, Bathing Machines,
Motorbikes, the Stars…Where are the Masterpieces?’,
in: Tracey, Drawing and Technology. www.lboro.ac.uk/
departments/sota/tracey/dat/images/faure-walker.pdf
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 (November) Drawing: Interpretation/Translation,
Hui Gallery, Hong Kong, March 2011; The Drawing
Gallery, Walford, Shropshire, May 2011; Wimbledon
Space.
2010–11 (Sep 2010 – Jun 2011) Jerwood Drawing Prize,
Jerwood Space, London and touring.
2010 (July/August) Hot Plate, print exhibition, Phoenix
Gallery, Brighton.
fAURE WALKER James
James faure Walker, The floor fell In, archival inkjet print, 61 × 64 cm, 2011
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