James Nares is an artist who is on the move—figuratively and literally. “Nares: Moves,” on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum through Oct. 6, is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work. Nares pays special attention to motion and a vision to create, capture and manipulate moving images to create a new way of looking at “things in motion, motion in things.”
But the British-born, New York-based artist also chose, with this first ever retrospective, to move from “James” to “Jamie” in a personal gender identity reveal. While all the printed materials and wall plate copy—completed well in advance of the exhibit—refer to “James,” “Jamie” is now the preferred usage. So, in respecting the artist’s wishes, as well as privacy, Ms. Nares is the artist whose work is currently on display.
The retrospective is another first of sorts; it’s the first show curated by MAM’s Director, Dr. Marcelle Polednik. She and Nares have created a journey through 50 years of the artist’s works based on themes, as opposed to linear chronology: Trace, Play, Pendulum, Release, Street, Mark, Portraits, Coda and Monuments. This choice has proved to be as smart as it is fascinating, traveling though the nine sections, seeing the through lines of Nares’ work in film, video, sculpture, painting, photography, even a collection of her homemade brushes displayed on one wall.
Nares’ film work has been shown previously at MAM in 2017–Pendulum (1976) and Street (2011). It is these works that we see the artist’s true intent of shaping space and time, controlling the speed both ways and focusing our view on the objects and movement through the air, as in Pendulum. While we expect to see and understand the pattern of repetition, Nares controls and changes it up, refocusing our view and altering it in the process. On the streets of New York City, we see people, motionless, yet the artist “moves” them through the POV camera perspective, slow motion, moving backward, riding a bike, flicking a finished cigarette. Mesmerizing to watch; surreal in its contradictory juxtaposition of frenetic New Yorkers suddenly slowed down, providing us with a voyeuristic look into movement, stillness and the space that surrounds both.
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The musical accompaniment transfixes the motionless “in motion” street scene; its acoustic meanderings well suited for the film. In a related highlight to the exhibit, the composer, guitarist Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, will play live accompanying the film on Friday, Aug. 16, in partnership with Milwaukee Film. Nares, Moore and curator Polednik will have a pre-performance discussion.
The artist moved from London to New York in 1974 as punk, new wave and No Wave Cinema took hold of the arts scene. We can see such influences in the choices used in the Portraits section. A “living portrait” of director Jim Jarmusch is among the seven featured and is well-chosen for his striking looks. The artist once again manipulates a controlled image by filming his subject—Jarmusch in this case—and forces us to watch intently as there is a slight turn of the director’s head, a movement of the eyes, a minimal shift of light and shadow following the movement. At 47:25 minutes, Nares reinforces just how powerful—and creative—the manipulation of space and time can be with so simple an art form as a now “living” portrait.
But “Nares: Moves” deftly showcases the artist’s movement across her own creative continuum of genres with a standout in this exhibit featuring her large scale works of oil on linen found in the Mark section. Adriana’s From Brazil (2005) is a magnificent burst of a “green wave” flowing across the canvas with a similar theme of blue in It’s Raining in Naples (2003). Nares plays with textures as well, as seen in Jimi Played Risk (2003), using iridescent pigment and wax on linen to striking effect with its frenzy of black circular movements.
“Nares: Moves” is aptly named—for the exhibit as well as the artist herself.
For more information, visit mam.org.
