ARTIST STATEMENT
When I first picked up a camera, I could never have imagined just how much it would change my perspective on life. That over time, it would completely change the way I see the world. Leading to my fascination with light, time and how our minds perceive and deconstruct the world around us.
In my artistic practice, I’m not interested in using my camera to reflect the world as I see it, but instead to reveal a new dimension. Embracing movement, distorting time and using momentum to create something beyond what the naked eye can perceive. Exploring the unique properties of light and time, and using them as the building blocks to create my works. Rearranging their natural flow to create something that makes us ponder our individual perceptions.
When viewing my still works, I encourage people to change the orientation and explore my art from multiple perspectives. Noticing how the same thing, seen in a different way, can completely transform it in our minds. A reminder that our individual human experiences are unique to us, and there is no universal reality we all share.
— JP Miles
BIO
JP MILES (b. 1986, Toronto, Canada) lives and creates much of his work amongst the biodiverse nature of Costa Rica. Miles graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Ontario, and began his artistic career in the film industry.
Initially captivated by the art of moving images, or video, it was his obsession with creating time lapses that ignited his fascination with long exposure photography. Using extended periods of time to create photographs with traces of motion. Captured in a way that reveals a perspective beyond what the human eye can perceive. Like the strokes of a car’s tail lights speeding down a highway. Or the misty haze of ocean waves revealing, yet still concealing, the rocks strewn across a coastline.
Beginning in 2017 and without even realising it at the time, Miles began his journey from a ‘photographer,’ towards becoming an ‘artist.’ No longer interested in using his camera to capture the world from his perspective. Instead he became fascinated with rearranging the world in front of his lens. Using his camera, time and movement as tools to re-visualize light into abstract works of art.
Often surprised by what he perceived within his work, early on Miles began the practice of rotating his art and viewing it in all four orientations. Fascinated by how vastly different the same piece could look, with just a simple shift in perspective. This obsession with rotating his artwork, and his desire to enable others to experience his work in this way, led him in 2021, to create ‘The Frame.’ A bespoke frame that can rotate an artwork in either direction remotely, without the need to rehang it.
Thanks to the generosity of Mark Darbyshire and his team, in October of 2021, Miles held his first solo exhibition at the Darbyshire Studio in the heart of the Angel, in London, UK. Showcasing various works from his first series ‘Transforming Space Time,’ a single edition bespoke art book handcrafted by award winning bookmaker, Manuel Mazzotti, and of course ‘The Frame.’
Miles currently lives and spends much of his time creating and finding inspiration in Costa Rica, with his wife Stephanie and his two beloved cats, Banksy & Bhuji. He continues to add to his first two on-going bodies of work (‘Transforming Space Time’ & ’Time Lines’), and is currently developing new bodies of work, including a new series of motion based video artworks, titled ‘Sleepy Time Capsules.’
