Sentinels a Venture Arts CoLa

The project spanned over 2024 and resulted in the production of a Zine

A collaborative project which aims to strip away barriers, stereotypes and hierarchies in visual art practice and supports a range of artists to progress in their careers. 

Sentinels a collaboration between Venture Artist James Desser and Jeffrey Knopf

The Sentinels

Hiding within the undergrowth just out of sight are visitors from the future come to monitor and view the past.

Silently watching these technologically evolved beings have learnt to adapt to their surroundings, able to blend in and out when required. Even with their mechanical additions and tough looking exteriors there is still a vulnerability to them, parts are failing, and adaptions made using found and discarded materials.

These watchers have found a natural habitat within our green spaces, they have built communities and social structures, living day by day in harmony with those around them, waiting for the time to reveal themselves and to pass on much needed knowledge on how to protect and save our planet.

On meeting James for the first time, I realised he was a deep thinker, with concerns about current politics and world issues that affect us all. Through talking with him and looking at past work he had created I could see he was interested in a form of world building, not only that he was interested in robots. Through these interests we were able to find a middle ground and strike up a working relationship in which we were able to learn from and direct each other.

James is interested in a specific range of Lego that was prevalent for a while but has now faded away, he brought
the Lego figures he had made into Venture Arts, and using basic technology I was able to 3D scan them and turn them in to 3D printed figures, this process took away many of the hard edges adding an organic finish to them. Showing James how to use milliput he was able to model and add his own additions to the base figures giving them new identities and adding a life to them.

Watching James work like this was very insightful, there was a silence, and an intense concentration involved. The day I handed over a shoe box full of Lego figures I had found at a local charity shop is rather memorable, James’s face lit up
as what I had found was a box of treasure, he dived in and started to take out and sort what was there, next he had his mobile in hand looking at instruction manuals on how to build these figures, again silence and concentration as his fingers deftly plucked and built these creations.

Being an creative photographer seems to come easily to James he really does have the eye for it, throughout the project he would show me photos he had taken on his mobile phone so it felt like the natural addition to this project. We took the figures to the local garden space and photographed them in different environments and situations, James using his mobile phone camera and I using a form of 3D scanning that blurs the line between photography and AI technology, defamiliarising what we see and know. Both of us working together to create a form of narrative between our two practices.

It has been a real pleasure to have been able to collaborate and work with James on this project, I would also like to thank Sarah Boulter for all her help and guidance along the way.

Jeffrey Knopf