What goes around comes around - James Clar

James Clar’s work is a fusion of technology, pop art,street culture, and visual information. His work has been an exploration of media technology and often charts the common intersection that is light, the shared element between all visual mediums. Throughout his artistic career,through various developments of media technologies, a defining factor of his work has been a questioning of what we see and how it affects our behavior.His journey of creating, manipulating and shaping light began as an undergraduate film student at New York University (NYU), concentrating on animation. Under the influence of various media theory, and specifically the writings of Marshall McLuhan, James’ outlook on visual systems began to be stripped down to the basic idea of light.

Following his Masters at Interactive Telecommunication Program (ITP, NYU), he moved away from screen-based work and decided to work directly with light. He began creating his own systems with which to manipulate light - thereby doing away with a reliance on traditional systems such as television or film. James currently has three patents in the US for new engineering systems he created while developing his light art.
James’ early works dealt with understanding how people see, often times being represented by sculptures that manipulated light information. His relationships with new media technologies have also led to various site-specific and interactive architectural installations - 3D environments that respond to the viewer, or to the space.

Following a move to the Middle East in 2007, his unique vantage point as a new media artist from America has led to more conceptual works that deal with nationalism, globalism, and popular culture in the age of mass information. His two previous solo shows, ‘For Your Eyes Only’ and ‘Acceleration’ both dealt with human behavior in a hyper-tech world. ‘Acceleration’ in particular dealt with highly politicized themes such as xenophobia and violent nationalism. Recent works have been a mix of visual systems with socio-political ideas and popular culture.