Jason Sims is an Australian artist, who for the last six years has been building and creating sculptural artworks, which explore his ever-inventive use of light and space. Entirely hand-made, Sims captivates audiences with his mesmerizing light boxes and installations, enticing the observer to travel ever deeper into his expansive portals of perspective.
Sims' practice embodies a fresh perspective on light-based, multi-media artworks, using striking colorful lighting and geometric shapes to create playful optical illusions. On the outside his creations have clear boxed-in boundaries, on the inside the infinite spaces extend beyond physical capability. These bold shapes, though anchored in position, seem to float weightless on the wall, given a curious glow by hidden lighting spilling out from behind. The shapes then dive within their own mirrored angles of inside space, drawing the eye deeper and deeper. Existential theory is a driving force behind the artist's concept, as he mines the illusion of depth to draw out self-reflection in the viewer. His objects are slick and ponderous; edgy and mystical.
“The illusion in my work, at least initially, seems to prompt the viewer to wrestle with what the eyes ‘see’ and the mind ‘knows’, but it’s not this that motivates me. I’m more interested in evoking a desire within the viewer for the illusion to conquer, at least for a moment or two, what they know to be true, in order to reach towards something more powerful and more profound – to create without complete disorientation something magical, indefinable and unexplainable.”
Jason graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the University of South Australia in 2006. He has since had several solo exhibitions and exhibited in numerous group shows throughout Australia and abroad, including SafARI, an unofficial fringe event to the 2010 Sydney Biennial of Contemporary Art held at Firstdraft. In 2010, ArtBank commissioned three of Jason’s pieces to add to their collection. He has been a finalist in the Tom Malone Prize for the past consecutive 3 years and recently had his work collected by the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
