Jamie’s scans of original graphite drawings act as simulacra, exploring how embedded meaning increasingly becomes tenuous or disparate through the process of dissemination. This mirrors how personal and collective narratives of traditionally marginalised groups continuously and increasingly become commodified through the lens of the colonial gaze, yet progressively lose real meaning. The museum collapses into the shopping mall. It also demonstrates the historical realities and the contemporary ramifications associated with representation. These images explore the power relationships continually played out through forms of representation, questioning who has the power to decide, what gets represented, and to whom.

Drawing from both personal and more general culturally specific histories, Jamie attempts to highlight and question the boundaries of both psychological and physical spaces that enable the formation of the self and other, whilst focusing on the constant push/pull relationship between these inhabited spaces. This work concerns the creation of a historical space for the representation of African diasporic people outside of the traditional colonial commodifications of ‘blackness’, and standing apart from the Eurocentric viewpoint employed throughout the canon of Western art.

Born in Canada, Jamie Bradbury lives and works in London, UK and Montreal, Canada. His work primarily explores postcolonial social and political policy through the use of drawing, painting, sculptural installations and writing. He often employs his Jamaican-Irish ancestry to investigate and highlight where these subjects intersect, or overlap, while also citing W.E.B. Du Bois’ theory of ‘double consciousness’ as a major influence to the evolution of his work.

In 2010, he graduated from the Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design MA Fine Art programme in London, while being exhibited in Canada and throughout Europe in exhibitions and fairs such as the Arte Fiera, Italy; Santorini Biennale, Greece; AACDD Festival, UK; and Art Toronto, Canada. Jamie’s work has appeared in publications and media such as Canadian Art, Bravo TV, CBC News, Canada; Garageland, Sky 1’s Pineapple Dance Studios, UK.

His works are held in private and public collections such as the National Portrait Gallery of Canada. In 2014, he was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize curated by Photo Works, and participated in a conference entitled ‘Images of Whiteness’ at Oxford University, UK, along with a residency in Atina, Italy.