The Ark
St. James and Wilson have worked together since 1982 in the area of live performance and video. In 1990 they 'invented' the video portrait in order to reconcile both the ephemeral and permanent nature of their work, saying 'as performance artists we were dead'.Their work has played to audiences in Britain, Canada and the USA, and has been broadcast frequently on Channel 4 television. They have found a particular affinity with art galleries, blending traditional themes such as portraiture with new technologies, including computer manipulated imagery. Their work includes a spectacular, multi-screen portrait of the swimmer Duncan Goodhew in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. The Ark invites the viewer to consider his or her own identity. The animals with which the human faces metamorphose serve as a reminder of our place within an anthropological chain, while the face within a frame suggests the historical and cultural nature of our existence, that which is learned rather than innate. The title The Ark has a biblical connotation; the artists have stated that 'humans invent religion in order to successfully pass through life into death.'
