Biography

Jim Campbell explores the intersection of art and technology in dynamic artworks that address the complicated issues of time, memory, and reality. Although his electronic sculptures often engage personal themes, his work delivers a universal message. Through his innovative combinations of video and electronics, Campbell speaks to the myriad ways in which contemporary society is affected by technology.
A Chicago native and current resident of San Francisco, Campbell boasts little in the way of formal art training. As a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he holds dual degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics. Although he dabbled in video art while studying at MIT, he did not break into the art world until several years later. After graduation in 1978, Campbell moved to the Silicon Valley, where he accepted a job at a video repair shop. During his free time he continued to work with video, combining his interest in technology with his desire to create “something that was more poetic and less mathematical.”1 Unable to successfully obtain gallery representation, Campbell and a friend decided to rent a space in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District and produce their own exhibition. Campbell’s work garnered the attention of the new media curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for its ingenuity and ability to manipulate computer technology into an expression of perceptual experience. Since that time, Campbell has surfaced as one of the Bay Area’s leading new media artists. But in contrast to many contemporary video artists, whose work is detached and sometimes esoteric, Campbell’s pieces often address his own, personal experiences. He is chiefly concerned with the manner in which technology has blurred the lines between subjective and objective perception.

In Memory Works, Campbell examines the shared characteristics of human and computer memory, namely that they are invisible and must be transformed in order to be represented. In Portrait of My Father (1994–95) and Photograph of My Mother (1996), two works from this series, the artist investigates the notion of dislocated memory. Each contains an electronic record of an event. These “memories,” which have been digitally manipulated in order to transform an associated object, contain only an echo of the actual memory. Portrait of My Father and Photograph of My Mother play with the idea of interconnectedness that we innately share with our parents. In these wall pieces, the artist visually links himself to his parents. In Photograph of My Mother, Campbell pairs a photograph of his mother with the repetitive beating of his own heart. Recorded over an eight-hour time period, while both asleep and awake, the artist’s heart beats in synch with the disappearing and reappearing image of his mother. Similarly, in Portrait of My Father, the sound of the artist’s breath, recorded over one hour, correlates with the clarity in appearance of his father’s portrait. Sandwiched between two pieces of glass, a close-up photograph of his father’s face fogs and clears in time with the artist’s recorded inhalations and exhalations. It is as though Campbell is breathing directly onto the glass, causing the image to dissipate through the perspiration of his breath. The works behave intuitively, provoking viewers to consider their position in life as relative to their parents. The pieces cause us to question the assumption that memory represents truth and encourage us to understand recollection as a manipulated echo of events passed.

Through the intriguing combination of cutting-edge technology and human experience, Campbell creates works that are at once technically impressive and emotionally engaging. His sculptures balance spectacle and memory in an honest exploration of the ways in which technological advancement both improves and alters our experiences. —L.W.

1. Jim Campbell, quoted in Jack Fischer, “Technocrat Has an Artist’s Soul, Exhibits in S.F. and New York,” San Jose Mercury News, 24 March 2002.

(SJMA Selections publication, 2004)

Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1956 and currently living in San Francisco, Jim Campbell boasts little in the way of formal art training. Campbell graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with dual degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics. After moving to the Silicon Valley in 1978, Campbell began to pursue video and electronic art in his spare time. His work gained the attention of SFMOMA’s new media curator and Campbell has since become known as one of the Bay Area’s leading new media artists. He has shown at institutions nationwide including the Berkeley Art Museum, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the International Center for Photography in New York, and the San Jose Museum of Art. His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the San Jose Museum of Art, among others. This would be the fourth work by Campbell to enter SJMA’s permanent collection. (SJMA Collections Committee, 2005)
Jim Campbell lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

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