Joshua Brennan
Artist Statement

I am drawn to that which falls beyond the realm of conventional beauty. Often occurring as slipping glimpses, these situations wait at junctures least expected – between the lines and cracks, on a bathroom wall or a hijacked fragment from a passing conversation. I absorb the unintentional installations and the profound performances of the unaware that I constantly stumble upon. There are no restrictions to the magical happenings which surrpund us in our everyday lives, but each will be evasive, unless we slow down and live in the moment.

Often, the work I create reads as though many hands are involved in its inception. This is a byproduct of exploring a range of concepts including authorship, authenticity and deception. Appropriation further establishes a distance of the hand by introducing found elements, charged with a history and aura from another life. Defacement also complicates authorship, falling into a position outside that of convention. Collaboration builds upon this foundation by embracing style shifts that fight coherency. Narrative is also disrupted by the malleable and abstract nature of language and writing.

By offering multiple points of entry, a myriad of references range of obscure, improbable, or insider concepts, the work presents an opportunity to broaden perception, question understandings and challenge convention. Utilizing approaches that complicate the possibility of a single reading, the work presents an opportunity to extract information. Layer by layer, become a visual archeologist.

This work manifests itself at the intersection of printmaking, painting, drawing, collage, photography, digital processes, installation and performance. This diversity embraces conflict, evoking a range of dualities that encompass historic and artistic concepts such realistic/abstract, high/low, dark/humorous, and ephemeral/permanent.