James Roper’s Paroxysm

I’m loving the intense, chaotic work of James Roper, on display now at Rojo in Barcelona. So sad I’m going to miss it by a week; I’ll be in Barcelona just after the show closes. Doesn’t mean I won’t stop by Rojo, though…

This work is really hard to explain, so I’m going to quote the press release: “Biological machines such as the human body process and retain energy and any processes placed under restraint will result in an intensification of it’s eventual release. The work attempts to portray this intermediate state as control gives way to chaotic abandon and a transition occurs from one state to the next. Roper is heavily influenced by the excessive and sensuously rich imagery of Baroque art and it’s depiction of the unfettering of religious restraint. Instead of the gentle ushering of the spirit towards the heavens his paintings spit, ejaculate, regurgitate and projectile vomit the spirit out, rejecting it’s bodily form in a fit of maniacal hysterics, a nonsensical reflexive outburst like the spasmodic speaking in tongues of those ‘slain in the spirit’.”