Fahn (James Gardiner)
1973, Sydney, Australia (Resides and works in Sydney (Gadigal), Australia)
Artist Biography
Fahn (James Bruce Gardiner) 1973, is a Sydney based artist, with a strong focus in ambiguity, perception and digital fabrication. Formerly an award-winning Architect and inventor (13 patents), his achievements include the world’s first 3D printed reef (2011-14) and the development of the FreeFAB Wax system – a 3D print and CNC system for fabrication of sustainable complex moulds for the construction industry (2012-2017) used for the Elizabeth line, London Underground project. James former careers have been recognised with numerous awards, scholarships, a Guinness world record and press coverage including National Geographic, New Scientist and the Economist.
James dedicated himself full time to his art practice in 2018, after many years of exploration. James continues to engage with technologies in novel ways. Gardiner completed an artist residency at UNSW Art & Design, where he pursued the design and fabrication of a large 3D printed ‘Shard’ sculpture for Sculpture by the Sea in 2018. James has since pioneered new methods of integrating digital machine cutting with traditional drawing and painting techniques within the postgraduate Master of Fine Arts program at the National Art School, Sydney in 2024. In line with James former career as an inventor, James works across multiple mediums and materials and is constantly experimenting and pushing his work into new territory on the world stage.
Artist statement
The vision for my art is to create conscious presence through multi-perspectival ambiguity. My background as an architect and inventor trained my brain in abstractions – flipping from plan, section, to detail – often within the same drawing. Our collective perception is equally being re-trained by the plethora of images that we consume through social media and other channels – from first person drone view, to the microscopic, portrait, and celestial images from satellites. This rapid shift in viewpoints I call the ‘perspectival flip’, our cognitive ability to quickly switch perception and understanding as new images present.
Humans are uncannily good at pattern recognition, but we often get this wrong as we try to understand the world. This is called Pareidolia – seeing patterns where they don’t exist, such as a rabbit in the clouds. My art pushes into this realm, exploring ambiguity and unknowing, a uniquely human quandary explored by philosophers for millennia. I play with misperception, each viewer brings different readings to an artwork, adding to something of themselves in engagement with the artwork.
My art begins with gestural abstraction as floor drawing, creating consciously but without intention, making space for what arises. For me, each drawing contains ‘perspectival flips’, a reading that shifts from topographic, to elevational, to portrait, etcetera. I then lean into these ambiguities in my collaboration with a 3D digital cutting machine, abstracting the original floor drawings into mixed media artworks. By working with the machine as an extension of myself and working consciously, I allow for a new artwork to arise. This is often a compounding of ‘flips’, creating ambiguity and conscious moments of contemplation.
In this conscious engagement with ambiguity, and the digital and analogue tools that I use, I find presence. Moments of contemplation in engagement with the artworks. It is this presence that I seek to share in my ambiguous ‘perspectival flip’ artworks. An engagement with the moment, a recognition of unknowing, a connection to our human condition.
Education and Training
2024: Master of Fine Art, National Art School, Sydney, Australia
2022: Bachelor of Arts (1st year), National Art School, Sydney
2010: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Architecture. SIAL, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
2004: Bachelor of Architecture (1st class Honors), University of Technology Sydney
2002: Bachelor of Arts (Architecture), University of Technology Sydney
1997: Diploma Arts (Interior Design), Enmore Design Centre, Sydney Institute of Technology
Solo Exhibitions
2024: Presence, Fourth Wall, Sydney
2024: Floor Drawing (Live performance), DRAW Space, Sydney
2019: Scape exhibition, Arthouse Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, NSW
Group Exhibitions (selected)
2024: Summer Sojourn, Art Artium, Botany, Sydney
2024: Masters Post Grad show, National Art School, Darlinghurst, Sydney
2024: In Parallel, DRAW Space, Newtown, Sydney
2024: 23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo
2024: Terrain, Art Garage gallery, Edgecliff, Sydney
2024: Fabrication, DRAW space, Newtown, Sydney
2024: Drawn Together, DRAW space, Sydney
2023: Home, Saywell Gallery, Marrickville, Sydney
2023: The Biggest Little Thing in Town, Defiance Gallery, Paddington, Sydney
2023: Olive Cotton Award, finalist, Tweed Regional Gallery, NSW
2023: Omnia Art Prize, finalist, Toorak, VIC
2023: Dominik Mersch Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, NSW
2022: Baker Miller Pink, St Peters, NSW
2022: Cessnock Contemporary, Cessnock, NSW
2020: Bushfire Appeal, Arthouse Gallery, online, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney
2019: Sydney Contemporary (Arthouse Gallery booth) Eveleigh, NSW
2018: Summer Salon, Arthouse Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney
2018: Sculpture by the Sea Bondi, Tamarama, NSW
2016-2018: Shapeshifters (travelling exhibition), Australian Design Centre, East Sydney NSW
2018: The Sculptors society, Darling Park, Sydney, NSW
2018: Stanthorpe Art Gallery, Stanthorpe Art Prize Exhibition
2018: Sydney Road Gallery, (exhibition Jan, Feb, March, April), Seaforth, NSW
2018: Contemporary Art Awards. (online)
2018: Port Lincoln Art Prize finalist, Nautilus Art Centre, SA
2016-17: Museum of Arts & Sciences, Out of Hand – Materialising the Digital, Ultimo, NSW
2013: Museum of Design, (3D-Print 3 dimensional things), Zürich, Switzerland
2010-11: Musee Del Disseny, (Full Print 3D. Printing Objects), Barcelona, Spain
2010: Open Agenda, Customs House, Sydney, NSW
2009: Nascent Present Exhibition, State of Design Festival, Melbourne, VIC
Collections
Museum of Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia
City of Sydney, Australia
Multiple private collections
Awards, Residencies & Grants
2024: Harvey Galleries Prize
2018: Finalist, NSW Creative Achievement Laureate (Create NSW)
2018: Artist in Residence UNSW Art and Design, Sydney
2014: BRW Most Innovative Companies 2014: 8 Laing O’Rourke (Freefab Wax invented by James Gardiner)
2010: Sustainable Ocean Innovation Award (inaugural), Sustainable Oceans International, Melbourne Victoria
2010: Open Agenda Award, University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
2005: Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship. NSW Architects Registration Board, Sydney
2004: Jack Greenland Travelling Scholarship, University of Technology Sydney
1997: Commendation of Excellence, Sydney Institute of Technology, Enmore, Sydney