Statement
By the act of stitching fractured yet interdependent moments of time, my work explores the nooks and crannies of feeling human. I survey these nuances, fiddling with the connections between memory: psyche, place:identity, body:time, through narration. I create miniature environments in a state of indeterminacy. This turbulence creates a dialogue of moments confusing the sequence of events. They invite the viewer into intimately private worlds provoking voyeuristic desires. Sculpturally cinematic, the distinction between fiction and reality, presentation and representation are weakened. Miniatures and abnormally scaled cross-sections of familiar objects kindle new realities and almanacs-repositories for future lives. Working within the crawlspace between fiction and reality, the puckish humor is gradually replaced by empathy and compassion for the eccentric characters whose lives are on the verge of disarray.
The humor is girded by equivocal narratives, which tempt us into playing with the boundaries of our own imaginations.The splinters of information evoke a disorienting sense of connection and estrangement. Spectator and participant become ambiguous as an inversion of perspective takes place, creating a shared portraiture in which the viewer provides their own personal histories and narratives. These fragmented stills, figures, and objects extracted from their complex storylines, present the viewers with windows of uncertainties. These windows show lives in suspended animation for pause and contemplation.
In this age of technological progress where the notion of instant is in high demand, I remain committed to a painstakingly slow and manual process. The methodologies I employ are aligned with manual construction processes, mold making, and mischievous clay formations. For my miniatures, I employ methods aligned with manual construction processes, along with mold making, and mischievous clay formations. Minimal amounts of readymades are incorporated within the almanacs to further corrupt their Promethean creation-like story. By forcing the viewer to play detective, preconceived assumptions crumble as “life” takes form. Through a strong dedication to craft, there is a degree of wonkiness that animates each component within the piece, creating intimate sculptures and installations. Each item contains its own fetishized romanticism behind its making and history, endowing it an emotional weight.
Bio
Joshua Mintz was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and received his Bachelors of Art in Arts from Rhodes College in 2015. He has been shown nationally in New Orleans, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Memphis, San Francisco and Sacramento. He was awarded the MFA trustee fellowship at SFAI. He was awarded The Helis Foundation for Best in Show in the Louisiana Contemporary 2022 presented by The Helis Foundation-curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. His work has been mentioned in Aesthetica, The Art & Culture Magazine and The Jersey City Times and The Country Roads. He received his MFA from SFAI in 2019 and currently works out of New Orleans.