Jack Myles

‘I want to regain control/understanding of the self, The self (I believe based on Hume and Ego Theory) is defined by the stimulus it has received. We now live in an hauntological late-stage capitalist age of [mis]information- of massinformation-, Brain rotted and overloaded with stimulus. I seek to look back to the past and regain control/question the stimulus that’s been put upon me by sources such as authoritarian western education, by television/pop culture and by the internet/social media. Through this I hope to gain a better understanding of the self. ​
Through collage, staging/restaging, diorama and memes I hope to find a better understanding of a self that is unadulterated by outside messaging. By utilising the world building methods of science fiction and fantasy, my art involves a humorous reinterpretation of the world around me, to find or fabricate hidden narratives and messages. ​
This has recently involved a deconstruction of personal family encyclopaedias. An examination stemming from both an aesthetic appreciation; and a hope to question what as a child I perhaps could not. I was fascinated with these objects and their surreal presentation of the world, The choice to elect and stage a handful images to represent such broad categories as Africa, Fascism, Radiology or Jazz. The proximity of these disconnected and clearly selected categories inspired me to reinterpret the world as I had been led to believe it. ​
I have also been interested an analysis of our relationship to the screen and the echoes of past forms of stimulus found in them, the historic and the present. By crossing over past points of information from encyclopaedia and from television with that of memes and reels/doom scrolls.’