JAMES ROBERT MORRISON

Back to art for a day with a new ongoing series by James Robert Morrison – ‘Ghost within me‘ – embroidery on erased images from a magazine.

About The Series

In this series of artworks, James reappropriates pages from his secret teenage collection of gay porn: he removes the image of the model from the page with an eraser and then hand-embroiders it on the reverse. Playfully exploring what a person conceals or reveals, he reflects on his experience of feeling that he had no choice other than to erase his true sexuality when growing up. He describes his authentic self at that time as: ‘a ghost within me’.

Artist Statement

James Robert Morrison’s work reflects on the experience of discovering his sexuality and his journey to understanding, accepting and valuing it.

Since returning to his practice in 2019, his focus has been on a new body of work with two key threads running through it – personal experience as subject matter and the referencing and reappropriation of a personal archive of gay porn secretly collected during his teenage years when he felt pressured into hiding his true sexuality. James recalls: “At that time, these magazines were the only place I could see representations of intimacy between men. This was the pre-internet age when anti-gay sentiment was at its peak in the UK following the HIV/AIDS pandemic and introduction of the notoriously homophobic legislation – Section 28 of the Local Government Act. There was virtually no queer representation or visibility, and if you did happen to find some, it was certainly not positive”.

From drawings on cigarette papers, to paintings and collages embellished with embroidery – James approaches his use of media in a playful way with complete openness, whilst consistently maintaining a quality and cohesion, making his work deeply personal.

The intimate subject matter, combined with repurposed personal archival material, allows James to present work which has a touching and nostalgic narrative, normalises non-heteronormative identities and, importantly, starts to fill the void of positive queer representation and visibility, that he, and so many other members of the queer community, did not experience during their formative years.