James Bloomfield 

The Great American Sideshow and other Myths

James Bloomfield's objects are subjects of the largest defining factors in contemporary reality. McDonaldization and the global consumer reality is referenced in the blazed cups and gun, also signifying the commodification of violence. While tackling these all-encompassing issues Bloomfield's work also seems to become a sort of memorabilia, there is a desire to his work, these souvenir objects have a sellable nature. In critiquing the commodity the objects become commodified and thus Bloomfield's work does bite the hand that feeds it.  

James Bloomfield describes his work in the exhibition: 

"My practice is concerned with the information that we are given and our capacity to make sense of it. I am currently interested in exploring the role of artist as activist through social practice with the creation of participatory or site-specific responses. My themes have recently been conflict and war" ... "Information absorbed is filtered through classical elements and then carefully constructed using a museological language to present a new entity. I am currently exploring the process of slip casting objects and then pit-firing them - "I’m interested in the object as artifact and the presentation of objects. The objects I am interested in have either a personal connection or are related to the every day; or are socially or politically charged". Recent ideas have been fuelled by reading George Ritzer's "The McDonaldisation of Society" and Edmund De Waal's "The White Road"

www.jamesbloomfield.co.uk