James Bantone b. 1992

James Bantone (b. 1992, Geneva) currently lives and works in Zurich. His work constitutes an ongoing exploration of mimesis and mimetic desire (the non-linear processes by which people subconsciously imitate the desires and distastes of others) through uncanny reproductions of the coded subtleties of gesture as they pertain to gender, sexuality, and race.
Bantone—whose experience as a fashion photographer informs his continued experimentations with the aesthetic possibilities of image making—creates installations which toy with the poetics of anonymity, ulterior perspective(s), and subjectivity as a means of questioning contemporary markers of Black, queer identity.