James Brook’s practice is concerned with memory - how places, faces and
events are remembered and how images act as a catalyst to trigger recollections of experiences, emotions and desires. A constant preoccupation has been an investigation into the mechanics of seeing and recognition: how paintings are ‘read’, their meanings understood and how the conventions of painting - mark-making, perspective - allow a flat surface to be experienced in three dimensions.
 
In recent works, autobiographical elements that explore masculinities and gay sexual identities have been integrated into the paintings. The artist’s aim was to ‘introduce an aspect of play to the work and to create works that were more about my self’. The result is a series of works that reference constructivist sculptures which become functional objects - shelves - by the placing of framed photographs on them.
 
The photographs themselves are culled from the Internet and are an analogue to the painted figures that appeared in earlier works. For James, the Internet exists as a kind of external hard drive for the brain - a space for the virtual exchange of images and ideas.
 
Essentially, these works are a kind of collage: melding together seemingly disparate fragments from the history of painting; from graphic design and architecture; and from popular culture. This intuitive combining of diverse elements show how creative play can feed the imagination, giving the mind a space in which to soar.

A belief in the continued relevance of the visual art object and an interest in the slippages of meaning between an artist’s intention and what an artwork actually transmits have sustained James’s practice. Paintings convey emotions, recollections and ideas but as ‘faulty transmitters’ are open to debate – the work becomes a platform for discussion.