CHOOSE THE UNIVERSE

For his second solo show at Galerie Imane Farès, James Webb presents a series of artworks resulting from extensive research and referring to the history of humanity, religions and thoughts. Choose the Universe is a call to welcome the unknown, to accept ambiguity, not to only consider obstacle as an impossibility, and to question the notion of mystery. It seems that the quest for the invisible, in the broad sense of the term, is at the heart of each of the artworks exhibited here. The history of psychoanalysis, but also various forms of spirituality (from Christianity to Animism and Buddhism) are all references used by the artist to represent what escapes our eyes and mind.
Placed in front of the wall, a Madonna with Child welcomes the visitor. Altered by time, the sculpture, entitled Invisibilia, seems to be coming back to life through a sonic transfusion. The recording of electromagnetic pulsations produced by the Aurora Borealis is broadcast through a transducer, which activates the plaster statue’s materiality and transforms it into a resonating
chamber. The fact that the object has been turned towards the wall is a diversion reminiscent of a number of artworks that marked the history of modern art for their desacralising capacity. Further on, James Webb uses, in a humorous way, a process often repeated in his practice, which is to juxtapose two or more elements in order to activate new possibilities. In the installation Friends of friends, he revisits the surrealist principle based on “the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table”. A plastic houseplant and a silkscreen print by Joan Miró – both discarded by their respective owners – were bought in the same thrift shop by the artist and are brought together again in the space of the gallery. The objects are, at once, linked by fate and by chance. Their “encounter” can be compared to a blind date that just was meant to be: they share a path.
The invisible and the ineffable meet in the series I do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand worlds. James Webb transcribes literary texts with ink on soluble paper, which he then dissolves in water and presents in glass flasks. These small bottles can be knocked down, or evaporate or even be drunk as a potion, a poison or a love philter. While poetry was central in the first pieces of this series started in 2016, here the artist explores the depths of the unconscious mind and the unknown.

– Odile Burluraux, June 2019