Alex Bunn, Artist's Statement        Download as pdf file

"A system is simply the subordination of an aspect of the universe to that aspect of the universe" Jorge Luis Borges

Systems are a recurrent theme in my work - Systems of classification, understanding, knowledge and of menial function. I am fascinated with the infinite variety of systems that we employ in every moment of thought, learning and communication.

This fascination branches into formal systems such as taxonomy, scientific method and language but also into the arcane and less accountable systems such as personal interpretation or even instinct.

Perhaps, the transformation that an object or idea undergoes through classification, is equally creative and destructive: information may become more accessible and instructive, but information is also lost.

Therefore, is there a way to reconcile disparate modes of thinking without discarding information and what is it that is lost? This enquiry leads my work to the epistemological question of whether we merely create useful/predictive models through our learning or whether we edge closer to an external nature.

My work is propositional. It attempts to depict a moment in a (fabricated) system that is persuasive as substantive yet draws on novel combinations of modes of thought in order to be resolved. The most conspicuous manifestations of this are fusions of different scales that are irreconcilable with everyday experience or apparent physical behavior that place objects in unknown classifications. In pursuit of these propositions, my work also plays with our relationships with materials and figuration and with concepts of duration and time.

The staging and presentation of the artworks are an attempt to make credulous a broader fiction, beyond both the artworks physical borders and its moment of creation, thus making them persuasive as formally substantive systems.

Production Process

After conception, the image may be impossible to embody in a single still frame because it may have accrued multiple perspectives, concealed artefacts or actions for example. To produce the work I must first devise ways to capture this imagery in a momentary frame without loss.

I must then source all of the objects and materials necessary, (which is fucking laborious) I also need to research the properties of these materials and experiment until the desired results are achieved.

Then on to fabrication: So far, each artwork has thrust up unique technical challenges and demanded eclectic skills to resolve, such as sculpting, lepidoptery, prop-making, 3D digital design, (kitchen-sink) material science, prototyping. haberdashery, mycology, radiography etc.

To execute the photos themselves I have engineered a unique photographic rig to control multi-positioning of a medium format camera in order to achieve a resolution above and beyond any commercial photographic process.

It enables my work to be viewed with clarity from microscopic detail up to very large scales and so simulating a kind of supersensory experience.

Biography

Alex Bunn is a self taught artist whose work has been well received in group and solo exhibitions in London, New York, Stockholm and Tokyo, including The Royal Institution of Great Britain, The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Frieze Art Fair.