james macswain

Accordion books, or tunnel books or theatre books, are three dimensional objects consisting of five accordion segments and a front “proscenium” arch. The fifth accordion segment is an image on acetate so that the accordion book becomes a light box that glows when a light shines on it as the viewer looks down its several segments from the front. The inner segments contain the various characters and objects that give the accordion book its meaning; The Green Man for example has the image of the Green Man, a male fertility symbol, on acetate on the fifth segment while the other four segments are enlarged flowers that emphasize the Green Man’s rule over gardens and fields. These three dimensional objects can be shown on plinths at eye level, particularly in front of windows where the natural light lights up the acetate at the back.

James MacSwain, born in Amherst Nova Scotia, received a B.A. in English from Mount Allison University and studied theatre arts at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. In 1973 he settled in Halifax where he began a career in theatre and arts administration. Since 1980 he has been working in film and video, receiving Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Arts Nova Scotia grants as a media artist.  MacSwain was the recipient of the 2011 Portia White Prize. 

Upon retiring in 2010, I left working as an arts administration at the artist run centres most concerned with media production which included The Centre For Art Tapes and The Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative. For most of my artistic career I was a media artist, creating media works in film, video and digital formats. After retiring I decided to scale down my artistic production; getting older is not conducive to raising funds, planning and production/post-production of media works. I switched to the production of book works; I am a voracious reader of novels, poetry and history which was solidified by my BA in Literature from Mount Allison University. In my earlier years I was also an actor in both dramatic theatre and puppetry. The concept of book works brought together both a passion for literature and history with a continuation of the magic of theatre and mise en scene. Thus I became enamoured of book arts creating both accordion books and star books whose narrative possibilities coincided with my aesthetic identity. Basically these artistic works fell into the material category of collage, a modern addition to the aesthetic toolbox of the twentieth century artist. Collage is conducive to political and social satire and mythic imaginings as both historical and present events, especially that presented by mass global capitalist culture, are easily obtained and manipulated for irony and parody. Thus my artistic process is one of twisting the meaning of our oppressive culture into mocking its racist, homophobic and violent mentality.