James Balmforth

Description

Movement Towards Diminishing Object is a work fraught with tension, both physically and metaphorically, where one is immediately confronted with a friction between materials. The stillness of the primordial boulder, akin to nature and history, is the surface on which the modern plastic chain mechanically circumnavigates and appears to be cutting into. The impracticality, if not complete impossibility, of the relatively soft plastic chain affecting erosion upon the resistant stone by its movement presents an ideological tension between the objects. The slow methodical movement of the chain around the quartz engages these two objects in a reversal of their superficially described interrelationship, where material truths do not emerge in an unveiling, but rather manifest themselves as an ongoing process.

The ineptitude of Movement Towards Diminishing Object to enact the physical process it appears to represent shifts the meaning of diminishment from object to concept. As it becomes clear that the rock's abrasion is not being affected by the chain's plastic, the process, rather than product, becomes the subject of this work. The diminishing object becomes something conceptual rather than tangible.

Despite the futility of this exercise, both conceptually and physically, Balmforth includes optimism in this work. Through the title, he has maintained possibility; Movement Towards Diminishing Object implies a notion of progress and endeavour. It takes on an existentialist tone, highlighting one's need to create meaning and to persist in the face of possible failure, absurdity or alienation. The piece represents an object whose materials and objectives are at odds with each other, yet do not represent the impossible.