Jeremy Kidd’s fascination with the drama of the modern urban scene has led to an awareness of the human need to create large dramatic architectural works as seen here in Thames I and Crystal City I.
Kidd explores the making of objective fantasies or fictional realities. In his structural works he attempts to rival elements of the vast, majestic western American landscape, where monolithic rock formations and sweeping canyons create such a sense of awe.
“I experience a similar feeling standing in front of, or more often driving around any number of American downtown skylines” says Kidd, who…
Jeremy Kidd’s fascination with the drama of the modern urban scene has led to an awareness of the human need to create large dramatic architectural works as seen here in Thames I and Crystal City I.
Kidd explores the making of objective fantasies or fictional realities. In his structural works he attempts to rival elements of the vast, majestic western American landscape, where monolithic rock formations and sweeping canyons create such a sense of awe.
“I experience a similar feeling standing in front of, or more often driving around any number of American downtown skylines” says Kidd, who feels the best way to convey the experience of ones vista is to take multiple images of the entire scene and re-assemble them.
Kidd believes that it seems unrealistic to expect a single photographic shot to convey the human experience of seeing because we visually explore our environment in the 3rd and 4th dimensions. In his work Kidd attempts to present something of this experience.
Kidd shoots with a digital camera and then develops the work in Photoshop. Each piece can contain up to one hundred two minute exposures so that almost two hours of time is condensed into one finished piece. Because of this way of working, Kidd considers himself a painter, painting in pixels.
Kidd adapts his photographs to suit the way he would like viewers to see the scene. For example, he may spend longer shooting some buildings more than others because they are notable landmarks, replicating particular features as if one had seen them twice, representing perceptual after-images. By presenting such elements from different angles as if the viewer were walking around a scene, he introduces the element of time into the work. Although this can be disorientating, Kidd is attempting to get closer to the way we actually catch glimpses of, interpret, process and accumulate images as we experience our surroundings.
The grandson of established British artists Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, Jeremy Kidd was born in the UK and studied his BA at De Montfort University, Leicester. He has exhibited extensively in California over the past 10 years, where he now resides. He has had solo shows at Laguna Art Museum in 2005 and 2007, and at various galleries in California, New York and Texas. Public and corporate collections that hold his work include Orange County Museum of Art, CA and the California State Senate Contemporary Art Collection.
