Ann-Marie's works acknowledge and play with their positions as artworks, employing appropriation as a tactic through which figurative elements pictorially wrestle with the weight of the history of painting.
Biro and the manipulation of the ink is the primary format for her work but she has recently branched out into ceramic and wood: The melded figures appearing to release themselves from their 2D confines.
Ann-Marie James in her own words:
I am interested in making works that, in different ways, acknowledge and play with their positions as artworks. In my paintings and drawings I employ appropriation as a tactic through which figurative elements can acknowledge and pictorially wrestle with the weight of the history of painting.
My sculptures approach the same subject in a slightly different way - hand modelled in clay, rather than cast from a found source, the sculptures do not quote historical works directly, but instead wrestle with their own pedestals and thus their own positions as art objects.