James Lakey from Lark Lane, Aigburth is the first local artist to exhibit work as part of the new ARTEFACT programme, showing in a specially designated area in the FACT Bar from 13 December 2005 through to 03 March 2006.
Over 60 local artists submitted work for consideration by the ARTEFACT panel, comprising a broad range of FACT and Picturehouse staff. The submission requirements were that the work, any 2D medium be it painting, drawing or print, must have employed the use of technology at some stage in its production and that it should have been made on Merseyside, in the last three years. Each chosen artist’s work will be on show for a period of three months.
James Lakey, who kick starts the ARTEFACT programme, studied at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and now lives and works in Liverpool. His hauntingly beautiful photographs entitled, They Walk Amongst Us, feature glimpses of birds in Sefton Park in the Autumnal dusk. “The images on display are in fact video stills, taken from a camera that was set up to capture any irregularities in the momentary existence of the common crow” Lakey explains, continuing “It seems each stretch, flutter and caw contains potentially infinite permutations, each bound within its own specific space-time.” Fluctuations in the form and texture of the bird were observed prior to this experiment, during which time it was thought the crow was harking back to its roots as a shape shifter, or a trickster spirit.
Pictured here is a detail from the piece.