Meet Your Maker: James Dodd

These shapes and marks are not made by hand, though, and are generated via Painting Mill, a machine constructed by Dodd to experiment with and produce paintings.  An artwork in itself, the mill is a range of cordless drills attached to a gantry made of an old bicycle and roller blades. Growing up on a farm, Dodd has always been interested in tinkering and DIY.

“I grew up with broken stuff being cobbled together,” he says.

“I’m really interested in how we can fix things using ingenuity, necessity and discovery.”

This curiosity with re-making and re-invention has continued into his art practice, where Dodd explores the historical role of the machine in art. More than 100 years ago, The Futurists famously embraced the machine age and challenged the traditions of painting and painter. The Painting Mill is Dodd’s contribution to this ongoing discussion. In previous exhibitions he has included the art-generating mill as a form of performance to engage with the audience.

In this current exhibition, however, the machine is not present. The audience is invited to see Dodd as the miller, the transformer of raw material into a fine-grained finished product through hand and machine.  “The artist and the miller are parallel, the miller understands the machine and works the machine to get the best outcome,” Dodd says.

Dodd’s practice is not bound strictly to the studio but extends to explorations of street and public culture. A current project is River Cycle with Country Arts SA and Vitalstatistix’s ‘Climate Century’ program where he is developing a fusion of a bicycle and a tinny to become both a physical and metaphorical vehicle for exploration.

So,  to answer his own question, where is the artist? In the case of James Dodd, he can be found in his studio operating his mill, in a gallery exhibiting his work or coming soon, pedalling hard on a hand-made bicycle on the River Murray.

James Dodd is a part of the Well Made community. Well Made is an initiative of Guildhouse. Explore and connect with the best South Australian visual artists, craftspeople, designers and creative spaces on wellmade.com.au

The Adelaide Review is a media partner of Well Made.

James Dodd Miller
Hugo Michell Gallery,
260 Portrush Road
Thursday, March 22 to Saturday, April 28
james-dodd.com

Photo: Sam Roberts Photography