Iain Mclellan Bastidas

About

I am a multi-disciplinary Scottish & Colombian artist who primarily works within the fields of printmaking, photomontage, book arts and photography. Presently my work focuses on the human experience in the era of anthropogenic climate change, and the subconscious trauma that comes hand in hand with the environmental and societal degradation that has become the status quo in capitalist societies.

Through the exploration and transformation of photographic archives, my practice seeks to question the status and value of the image while exploring and reflecting its’ historical context. This exploration is expanded through the influence of Susan Sontag’s writings on the nature of the uncanny and the power of the photographic image. Often reflecting on the visual identities/histories of Cubism and the Berlin Dada my work takes influence from Dawn Adès. Adès’ writings on photomontage and how it serves as a mechanism to contextualise a distinct visual narrative and identity. This narrative is supported through the violent nature of the cut and pasted photographic image during the era of the oversaturation of the photograph a century after the Dadaist transformation of the photograph.

My work strives to repurpose and transform and respect the archive and photographic imagery. Transforming it into something vibrant and beautiful that draws you in and shows you harsh truths and emotional weight behind the realities of the Anthropocene. There is an exhaustive process in the creation of my work, the use of the unconscious and instinct and central in the formation of my visual narrative and aesthetic. I goal is to allow the viewer to dive into the hyperreal and maximalist nature of my work. Hyperreality and maximalism are central pillars in my exploration and reflection of what I see as our collective emotional weight that we carry through anthropogenic degradation in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries.

I strongly believe in the democratisation of art and the mass dissemination of the image, Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ influences my path as an artist and as a person moving forward. The ideas of presentation, accessibility and social value of art are now move relevant having been immersed in an exclusive fine art environment at the Royal College of Art. This had raised and still raises many questions on the ability of an artist to stand true to their ethical and moral values. These paradoxes make up the lived experience of an artist who is set on invoking social and environmental change. This is a point of conjuncture that I intend to explore in the furthering of my practice as an artist going forward.