contact details
email: j.hamlyn@rgu.ac.uk
tel: 00 44 (0)1224 263607

web site:
www.jimhamlyn.co.uk
www.ideasinpublicspace.com

JIM HAMLYN

Biographical Statement

Jim Hamlyn has exhibited nationally and internationally in such countries as Egypt, Finland, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the USA. His work uses an interdisciplinary approach which incorporates a wide range of media from public sculpture and installation to interactive media and the moving image. In 2004 he set up the BA (Hons) Course in Photographic and Electronic Media at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen which he now leads. Since 2001, Jim has also been a part-time lecturer in the Fine Art Photography department at Glasgow School of Art. In 2005 he founded the company IDEAS in Public Space LTD with Jim Buckley (reader on Fine Art at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen) and Ivan Drummond (Subject Group Leader, Design, Napier University, Edinburgh) to challenge and redefine conventional notions about the integration of art into the public sphere and the role of the artist in urban regeneration schemes.

Roger Fenton’s “Valley of Death” Revisited, 2006.
(Requires a Stereoscope)

Personal Statement

Throughout my career I have maintained an ongoing interest in the nature of origins. In particular I am concerned with the roles context and history play in constituting the identity of objects and experiences. Similarly my selection of materials and processes has a great deal to do with this recurring fascination. The interest in photography, in digital media and particularly the use of water and light are all related through a questioning of the meaning and significance of origins. This investigation feeds into all areas of my practice from large scale collaborative public artworks to small scale gallery exhibitions and becomes a means promoting ideas and drawing critical attention to the mutability and strangeness of diverse contexts and phenomena. During the last 18 months my work has also expanded to include scholarship into Teaching and Learning through voluntarily enrolment on the PGCert course at the RGU. This has been augmented by a reflective online journal (http//:thoughtsonartandteaching.blogspot.com) which is a depository of ongoing reflection on art and teaching as well as discussions with other artists, academics and students from the UK and further afield. This new venture feeds into both my practice as an artist and my work as a teacher in many fertile, provocative and unexpected ways and has already lead to a number of outputs including the Sunday Herald, Ceramic Review magazine and online at Dyske.com. This year I have also produced new photographic work, including a series of backlit works and large kinetic installation for exhibition in Schwerin, Germany for the 850th anniversary exhibition of the Kunst Museum.

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