James Mansfield is an artist who uses a variety of fictional devices as a mode of speculative research and enquiry. He is the founder of the Imaginative Press, which produces artists’ publications on subjects such as the archaeology of lay-bys, the small museums of Newfoundland, and the classification of rocks. His other main project is Joseph Beuys in Connemara, which is based in a traditional stone cottage where the German artist might have stayed in the 1970s. Through both research and artistic interventions, the project explores the legacy of Beuys and wider concerns in modern art such as institutional critique and myth-making. Originally from Co.Kildare, he is now based between London and Connemara.
