Ben Jack Nash originally turned his attention to art through activist roots around social justice. His art practise ran alongside an activist legal practise defending and assisting people who found themselves on the margins of society - prisoners, asylum seekers, addicts and mental health patients. Often over represented by minority groups. This was accompanied by prosecuting those in positions of power - the police, government ministries and global corporations. Many of his early works involved discreet art interventions whilst at work with a suit, tie and briefcase. 

 

This exposure still underlies an important impetus for his artwork. The law could help individuals and make incremental changes but many of the problems are inherent in the structures and systems which embody it. Meaningful change begins with re-imagining how else flawed systems might be. Something that art and artists are well placed to challenge. 

 

To this end, an important element in Nash’s practise suggests that artists should be considered as experts and have a place at the table no different from a politician, economist or scientist. Bringing ideas developed in the studio rather than the committee’s boardroom. In relation to his own practise an understanding of physical matter can be applied to an understanding of the socio-poltical landscape. This has developed into AAA theory - Artificially Accelerated Abstractification. It considers how many of the big challenges the world is currently facing - climate change;  the rise of nationalist movements or economic imbalance, can be connected by seeing them as movements towards the abstract at breakneck speed. The theory has been the subject of publication and you can read more about it here.

 

The works in this series point towards this phenomenon in the form of artworks, texts or a combination of the two.