James Beckett

Born in 1977 in Harare, Zimbabwe, James Beckett lives and works in Amsterdam. Beckett is an artist and a musician. He primarily works with installation, creating environments which incorporate performance, painting, sculpture, embroidery, text and print. His research-based practice explores minor histories, mostly concerned with industrial development (and subsequent demise) across Europe, a process of investigation which is as much physical as it is biographical. Beckett often relies on museological display mechanisms to present local manufacturing developments, at times staged from the particular vantage point of product evolution. Accompanied by anecdotal accounts of local figures – including little known artists, inventors and workers – these dry exposés eschew narrativity in favor of opening up peripheral readings of historical events by focusing on the objects and artifacts that have been left behind. Beckett’s earlier audio pieces promote a conceptual understanding – as opposed to an affected experience – of sound. These often take the form of visualizations of sound, as well as other information, as diverse as animal experiments and traffic density. With music and sound as an extension of his visual practice, he has collaborated with a number of groups including the Plus Minus Ensemble, and the Dutch-based musicians initiative N-Collective. He is a founding member of the Hurdy-Gurdy outfit and The FRÈDERYCK NÙYEGEN Seaside Memorial Band.

For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art