TRANSLATED BY 翻譯 x Hazel Ke 柯淇雯
IMAGE COURTESY BY 圖片提供 x the artist and Hannah Barry Gallery 詹姆斯·卡珀及漢娜·百麗畫廊
James Capper is a young British artist graduated from the Royal College of Art, London. Capper is a very interesting artist, or rather, a lad at the age of 27 using his studio like an industrial workshop—-a large cluttered workspace. He did not care about the studio mess, he laughed, he talked, as free as a bird. Despite all achievements he has had—-a bursary member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors; won the Royal Academy’s Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture; shortlisted for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize; featured as part of the Peckham Pavillion at the Venice Biennale; having his new work Hydra Step shown in the Art Basel Hongkong-—Capper concerns more about his creation. He has such a delightful and innocent personality that he transforms all his curiosity and passion towards machines, mobile sculptures, metamechanics, Kinetic art, whatever you call it. Recently, he owns a new big studio, a 2500 square feet warehouse space, which he is wild about, as the new playground enables him to embark on a lot of projects that could not be realized before.
詹姆斯·卡珀是一位英國青年藝術家，畢業於倫敦切爾西藝術學院，年僅24歲的他是一個非常有趣的藝術家或者說是一個大男孩兒，他的工作室就是他玩耍的空間──一個一團糟的大車間。他對自己雜亂的工作空間倒是毫不在意，拉著我們一起侃侃而談。雖然年紀尚輕，但履歷當中卻已經有一長串的光輝業績：獲得英國皇家雕塑家協會獎學金（Royal Society of British Sculptors Bursary Award），入選皇家藝術學會傑伍德雕塑獎（Royal Academy of Arts Jerwood Sculpture Prize），傑克·歌德西爾雕塑獎（The Jack Goldhill Prize for Sculpture）等等。
從出道到今天的6年里，詹姆斯可謂是順風順水，對此詹姆斯的反應出奇的淡然，他好像對這些外在的改變和他本身並沒有太多的關係，除了創作以外的事情都是他的代理畫廊來為他打理。詹姆斯天真無邪的品性讓人覺得非常的可愛，他把自己的好奇心和對機器的熱愛轉化為了源源不斷的靈感來源。最近他終於有了自己的一個創作空間，一個250平米左右的廠房，他覺得特別高興，因為他可以做很多原來不可能實現的項目。他最新完成的機械蜘蛛將會在今年香港巴塞爾藝術博覽會上露面。
ART.ZIP: You are very fond of moving things?
ART.ZIP: 你對移動的物體有十分濃厚的興趣嗎？
JC: My interest is in things that walk, and different forms of propulsion – I’m looking at insects, very small animals to then make them semi-mechanically – taking some of the simplicity of the way that they move and turning that into a mechanical movement.
JC: 我的興趣就是那些會“行走”的物體。還有形式各異的動力裝置——我會研究昆蟲和小動物，然後模擬它們的運動製造出成半機械的作品：我會選取較簡單的昆蟲移動方式，將這些方式轉變為機械運動。
ART.ZIP: Like a robot?
ART.ZIP: 就類似機器人？
JC: Well, yes. That’s what a lot of people in industry say – I’ve got a lot of people who help me make things in industry – they help me paint them, and they help me put the pipes on them, and they refer to them as robots – but they are not actually automated. They are controlled by me, so that’s why I call them machines rather than robots because they are controlled by me rather than a computer. Most robots will use a computer or an interface or something to make them move or perform an action, but that is something I am not too interested in.
JC: 嗯，是的，許多工業人員是這樣認為的。我得到了許多工業人員的幫忙，他們協助我製造。他們幫我塗色，幫我組裝零件。他們通常稱我的作品為機器人。但實際上我的作品並不是自主移動的，它們統一由我控制。這就是為什麼我稱它們為機器而不是機器人，因為是我在操控而非電腦。大多數機器人是在電腦、接口或別的方式控制下移動或執行指令，這些我就不太感興趣了。
