Fahn (James Gardiner) Presence

Fahn (James Gardiner), Presence Pr24-27, Acrylic, graphite and tape on machine cut cradled board (plywood, timber and masonite), 61 x 73 x 7.6 cm
$4,500

Fahn (James Gardiner)

Presence

8 May – 14 June 2025

Art Atrium 48 is proud to present Presence, an evocative new exhibition by Fahn (James Gardiner) that explores unknowing and presence through a play with ambiguity and 'the perspectival flip'. Two series, 'Sentience' floor drawings and 'Presence' digitally fabricated relief paintings, investigate our shifting perception in the digital age. Rooted in architectural abstraction, these works invite viewers to engage with multi-perspectival ambiguity. The 'Sentience' series begins as gestural floor drawings, consciously created without intention. 'Presence' evolves these drawings through collaboration with a 3D digital cutting machine, compounding 'perspectival flips'. This conscious engagement with ambiguity, blending digital and analogue techniques, aims to create moments of contemplation. Viewers are invited to recognize the unknowing in our shared human condition and connect with the present moment.

Catalogue by John McDonald on Fahn’s exhibition ‘Presence’

"There are few ways in which works of art today can escape classification and definition, but James Gardiner - who goes by the pseudonym, fahn - is blurring the boundaries. On the most fundamental level, Gardiner’s works are drawings, but they are also sculptures, paintings, and architectural models. It doesn’t require much imagination to see them as maps or diagrams."

"One imagines that for Gardiner, who was an inventor and architect before he devoted himself to art, it requires a huge effort to break away from an analytical way of thinking. His pseudonym, fahn, is an emblem of that effort, based on the Cantonese ‘sic fan’ which means to eat rice, or as Gardiner prefers, “to remember the base”. Just as a Chinese meal is unthinkable without rice, Gardiner is reminding himself to focus on those bedrock aspects of art and let the viewer supply the meanings."

"Gardiner subscribes to the view that a work of art is essentially an open-ended fiction. In this exhibition these fictions may be impressively solid, but they are not any one thing, and there is no attempt to address any of those social and political issues contemporary artists find so entrancing.

It is, however, hard to avoid speculation, and to me these works are maps of the mind – mappa mentis rather than mappa mundi. As early cartographers had to find ways of filling in blanks on a map of a world only partially explored, so too does Gardiner ask us to add our own details to these ambiguous objects, at once so suggestive but reluctant to reveal their ‘true’ identity." 

— John McDonald

Read full catalogue by John McDonald

Fahn Artist Statement

”The vision for my art is to create conscious presence through multi-perspectival ambiguity. My training as an architect and inventor steeped me in abstraction - flipping from plan, section, to detail - often within the same drawing. Our collective perception is equally being re-trained by the plethora of images that we consume through social media and other channels – from first person drone view, to the microscopic, portrait, and celestial images from satellites. This rapid shift in viewpoints I call the ‘perspectival flip’, our cognitive ability to quickly switch perception and understanding as new images present.

Humans are uncannily good at pattern recognition, but we often get this wrong. This is called Pareidolia – seeing patterns where they don’t exist, such as a rabbit in the clouds. My art pushes into this realm, exploring ambiguity and unknowing, a uniquely human quandary explored by philosophers for millennia. I play with misperception, each viewer brings different readings to an artwork, adding something of themselves in engagement with the artwork.

My art begins with gestural abstraction as floor drawing, creating consciously but without intention, making space for what arises. For me, each drawing contains ‘perspectival flips’, a reading that shifts from topographic, to elevational, to portrait... I then lean into these ambiguities in my collaboration with a 3D digital cutting machine, abstracting the original floor drawings into mixed media artworks. By working with the machine as an extension of myself and working consciously, I allow for a new artwork to arise. This is often a compounding of ‘flips’, creating ambiguity and conscious moments of contemplation.

In this conscious engagement with ambiguity, and the digital and analogue tools that I use, I find presence. Moments of contemplation in engagement with the artworks. It is this presence that I seek to share in my ambiguous ‘perspectival flip’ artworks. An engagement with the moment, a recognition of unknowing, a connection to our human condition.”

About the artist

Fahn (James Bruce Gardiner) 1973, is a Sydney based artist, with a strong focus in ambiguity, perception and digital fabrication. Formerly an award-winning Architect and inventor, his achievements include the world’s first 3D printed reef (2011-14) and the development of the FreeFAB 3D print Wax system (2012-2017) used for the Elizabeth line, London Underground project. James has been recognised with numerous awards, scholarships and press coverage - including National Geographic, New Scientist and the Economist.

Fahn (James Gardiner’s artist pseudonym) dedicated himself full time to his art practice in 2018, after many years of exploration, and he continues to engage with technologies in novel ways. Fahn completed an artist residency at UNSW Art & Design, where he pursued the design and fabrication of a large 3D printed ‘Shard’ sculpture for Sculpture by the Sea in 2018. He has since pioneered new methods of integrating digital machine cutting with traditional drawing and painting techniques within the postgraduate Master of Fine Arts program at the National Art School. In line with James former career as an inventor, James works across multiple mediums and materials, is constantly experimenting and pushing his work into new territory

Exhibition Opening

Exhibition Opening to be launched by:

Katrina Cashman
Gallery Manager of National Art School

Thursday 8 May 2025
6:00 - 8:00 pm

Exhibition Panel Discussion

Fahn (James Gardiner)
Kon Gouriotis
Martin John Oldfield
Simon Chan

Wednesday 28 May 2025
6:00 - 8:00 pm

Link to Exhibition Panel Discussion

Artist Performance
Artist performance by Fahn (James Gardiner), with live music by DJ Clare Neal

This performance is sponsored by Holloway Sound (sound system)
www.hollowaysound.com.au

Saturday 31 May 2025
2:00 - 4:00 pm

---

ARTWORK