James is a finalist in the Ramsay Art Prize with his daguerreotype series Pardu.
'Pardu is a daguerreotype photographic series of Kaurna animals. Most animals documented in the Kaurna language were recorded in the colonial period of the 1830s and 1840s by European colonists. Most names were documented in word lists with simple written descriptions, making identifying the exact species difficult for the contemporary Kaurna language community. In only one instance, bird specimens were collected along with their Kaurna names, but unfortunately, the list of names and the bird specimens were separated, and the bird's current location was unknown. Technology such as drawing, painting and daguerreotype photography were available to the European colonists in Adelaide on the Kaurna nation; however, these technologies were not used in documenting Kaurna animal names. This series explores the hypothetical idea of what if the European colonists used the new Daguerreotype technology to catalogue Kaurna animals. If the colonists had used this technology and recorded the names, we would better understand Kaurna animal naming today.'
The Ramsay Art Prize 2025 continues to support contemporary Australian artists under 40 to make their best work, unrestrained in scale and medium.
The winning work is judged from the exhibition and is acquired into the Gallery’s collection, with the winning artist receiving $100,000, thanks to the generosity of the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation.
Artwork:
