“Iris was a Pupil” by American Multi-media Artist James Clar

The view from the exhibition “Iris was a Pupil” by James Clar / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'One minute dreamstate (1.40 am)' by James Clar / fluorescent lights and filters, 220cm diam., 2012 / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

“Iris was a Pupil” calls the connotation of synaesthesia to mind. The theme of crossing borders is always present in the work of Clar, who lives and works between New York and Dubai: not only in the sense of redefining the physical limitations and boundaries of media (mediums), but also in the metaphysical sense of investigating subjects such as nationalism and globalism in the age of social technologies. Here, he takes a step further, blurring the lines between dreams and reality, synthetic and real.

Aesthetically, his oeuvre is closely related to early minimalism and conceptualism. The new mission is to feedforward instead of to feedback. His technique always allows him to go beyond self-referentiality and touches very current themes while closely investigating the politics of representation. Clar’s work is deeply connected to art historical discourse, but cutting edge at the same time: where most artists would only ask How, Clar’s work is all about the Why.

Lights and filters, brainwaves and diagrams: Clar deals with raw material and raw data. His approach towards subject matter is physical and analytical at the same time, direct in implementation, but meta in discourse. Where new media minimalism meets information theory, Clar is on the bleeding edge: self-sufficient but far from self-contained. The works not only keep exploring the entanglement of aesthetics and theory, but Clar fuses these to something that deserves to be called true media art.

The photos from the exhibition:

'Wake up' by James Clar / Vacuum chamber and alarm clock, 35 x 25 x 25 cm, 2012 / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'Increasing Resolution' by James Clar / 190x120cm, Fluorescent lights and filters, 2012 / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'Orchid' by James Clar / 3D printed orchid, Fluorescent lights, filters, metal, rubber 70x55x55 cm / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'Rain Reduction' by James Clar / Fluorescent light and filters, 90x230cm, 2012 - edition of 3 +1AP / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'Standard Observer (looking glass)' by James Clar / Fluorescent lights and filters, 90x90 cm, 2012 - edition of 3 +1ap / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'Waves (with sunset)' by James Clar / Fluorescent lights and filters, 190x100 cm, 2012 / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'Coastline' by James Clar / Fluorescent lights and filters, 40x80x40 cm, 2012 / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

'Focus' by James Clar / Fluorescent lights and filters, 120x100 cm, 2012 / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

The view from the exhibition “Iris was a Pupil” by James Clar / Courtesy of Carbon12 Dubai

The exhibition opened on 5th of November and will run until 08th of December 2012 at CARBON12 DUBAI.