‘Bertrand Russell Abandons Wales’ – New Works from James Moore

Brazilian salsa and Welsh funerals – PAPER Artist James Moore shares the story behind two of his most recent works.

Terry Gilliam listening to the radio on the beach at Port Talbot, playing Brazilian salsa, 1976AD

Oil on Paper, 2020, 40x30cm

Info: A history painting about the formation of the film Brazil (1985). Its director Terry Gilliam is known to have thought up his dystopian SF movie whilst in Port Talbot in Wales, the site of one of Europe's largest steelworks. Talking about his initial concept for the film, Gilliam describes a man on the beach, listening to some South American music on a portable radio, escaping from the harsh industrial reality that surrounds him. This conceptual landscape forms the seed for the whole film. In Terry Gilliam listening to the radio, I've put together an image of what this scene might have looked like, creating a painting that has the heightened reality of a dream.

Bertrand Russell Abandons Wales AD1970

Oil on Paper, 2019, 40x30cm

Info: A painting of the analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell's funeral in Wales. Another picture of mine which forms part of an ongoing series of history paintings, generally focussing on Wales, its landscapes and the use of surrealism as a method for analysis. Russell was a Welshman, and although he spent much of his life teaching in Cambridge, when he died, he asked for his ashes to be scattered on a Welsh mountain without religious ceremony. A classic scene of ash-scattering is presented in the film The Big Lebowski (1998), when Donny's ashes are dispersed on the Californian coastal cliff-tops. Super-imposition of Pen y Fan and a scene from the film come together in my own vision of what the funeral might have been like.

What to know more about James’ work? Read our full-length interview with the artist from back in 2017.

James Moore is an artist and curator based in Cardiff. He studied a Fine Art degree at Manchester School of Art and a Masters in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design in London. He works primarily as a painter, but also produces experimental animations. James has been included in the National Eisteddfod Y Lle Celf exhibition on three occasions and exhibits regularly around Wales and further afield. He began working with Paper Gallery in Manchester from its inauguration and has been a part of many of their projects. Recently his work has been exhibited at Elysium Gallery and g39 in Wales, Norman Rea gallery in York, The Mall galleries London and the Saatchi Gallery London.