Artist James Tylor and the Darkness of Enlightenment

James Tylor

Bachelor of Visual Arts (Photography)
Master of Visual Art & Design (Photography)

James Tylor’s immersive work as a multi-disciplinary contemporary visual artist, spans mediums including photography, video, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, sound, scents and food, to deftly explore the Australian environment, culture and social history in meaningful .

His work is particularly pertinent when it comes to his own background delving deeper into Australian cultural representations through the perspectives of his multicultural heritage that comprises Nunga (Kaurna Miyurna), Māori (Te Arawa) and European (English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch and Norwegian) ancestry.

Drawing from his series From an Untouched Landscape, James Tylor organised 18 of his photographs captured on Kaurna land with 30 Kaurna objects he has made himself according to historical records, becoming his newest presentation The Darkness of Enlightenment.

The work was also accompanied by two sound works by Koorie artist Anna Liebzeit; one capturing Kaurna language and music by the artist and Jack Buckskin, the other drawn from conversations with Kaurna elders involved in the revival and continuation of the Kaurna language and culture.

As a result, The Darkness of Enlightenment calls into focus the mistakes, mistranslations and loss of knowledge resulting from European colonist processes in documenting Kaurna culture. The Darkness of Enlightenment is a remembrance and action, recognising the powerful role recording our present holds in shaping our future.

The exhibition was shown for the Samstag Museum of Art’s recent 2021 Adelaide//International exhibition earlier this year.

James speaks with poet Dominic Guerrera for Samstag’s ON ART Podcast in depth about his work and the mistakes, mistranslations and loss of knowledge resulting from European colonist processes in documenting Kaurna culture.

The ON ART Podcast is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and Solstice Podcasting, and produced by Tilly Balding in Tarntanya/Adelaide, May 2021. More episode’s here.

Bold, creative and responsive to contemporary visual art, Samstag Museum of Art is one of Australia's leading university art museums. For more, see unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum.