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JAMES BRIDLE: HOW CONTEMPORARY ART INTERACTS WITH THE WORLD
"The job of art for me, is to disrupt and complicate, renew and criticize networks by representing and building upon them."
- James Bridle
James Bridle is a London-born artist who dedicates his artwork towards the connections and disconnections between man and machine. Bridle's art installation project, Under the Shadow of the Drone (2013), is an example of his public attempt on bringing awareness towards the realities of war and conflict, defining the idea of "art without borders." The conceptualized installations compose a broader and contemporary view on the realities of our world today. He takes the full-scale outline of various war drones and installs the large shapes in the center of public areas, such as streets, parks, and in front of buildings. The people who walk these streets every day, either to work or out to lunch with a friend, receive a daily reminder of aggression and war that could be right over their heads. These impactful installations reflect the idea of the sheer size of these quiet war drones, which may be flying directly over our heads without us even knowing.
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From Another View:
In this short video, as the camera pans out farther and farther away, the size of the drone becomes clear among the crowd of people. One can't help but feel like they are the drone that is casting this empty shadow below.
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MY INSPIRED PIECE:
A Colossal Shadow
James Bridle's Under the Shadow of the Drone combines the idea of how large these drones actually are with how quiet, yet destructive they can be. The development of technology has allowed for military operations to scope out other geographic locations, as well as the ability to release bombs and from above.
These are scary times in the world due to the combination of technology and war, which inspired me to digitally draw this shadow of a drone flying directly over the United States, serving as a visual representation of the idea that war is right above us. As technology develops, so does the military capabilities across the world. While James Bridle's drone shadows are physical examples of what is going on in the world, I hope this picture justifies his ideas into an even larger depiction.
- Alex Taylor, Elmira College '23
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