James Jean "Quest I & Quest II" Print Set

James Jean
Quest I & Quest II, 2023
Archival Print on Cotton Rag Paper
17 x 17 in each
Edition of 200

Hand Signed + Numbered by the artist. Accompanied by a custom top loading portfolio designed by the artist to house the print set, constructed from heavy pearlescent paper and featuring images of the preliminary line drawings used for the album art.

FROM JAMES JEAN
Earlier this year, I met JJ Lin in Los Angeles, and he asked me to create the art for his 20th anniversary album. I visited him in the music studio, and he explained how these past twenty years took him on a circular journey that would eventually propel him forward into new beginnings.

The two figures on the album cover are connected by a Möbius strip. Our journey in life often progresses in loops, with loose threads eventually connecting as each loop reveals itself.

The Möbius strip also doubles as a blindfold, preventing our protagonists from knowing and predicting the future, even though things will eventually come full circle. The path is unclear but predestined. In fact, the figures are actually two versions of the same person. On the left, our hero is continually seeking, using a divining rod to find pearls along his journey. To the right, our hero’s ambitions have taken him to the sky with a satchel full of treasures. He holds a calla lily, a symbol of rebirth. Though he reaches for the heavens, he is still tied by the veil to the earth and to his past, weighed down by history. Time and life flows through the loop as our hero continually grasps and lets go of perceived treasures. He reaches for a song sparrow which is just about to land on his hand. The sparrow carries numerous spiritual and mythological associations, and in this case, the blessings of the song sparrow might be bittersweet.

Along the path are strewn old concrete pillars and the architecture of past lives. Everything, including the natural landscape and inanimate objects, is imbued with energy, and perhaps are able to respond to our prayers of gratitude.

The landscape, inspired by the Romantic landscape paintings of Casper David Friedrich, is meant to evoke a sense of introspection through a solitary journey into nature, as our hero searches for the sublime. The sun grows warm and incomprehensibly beautiful as it nears the horizon, and our hero can be absorbed by this divine display if only he removes the thin veil in front of his eyes.