JOSH JORDAN

ARTIST STATEMENT

My ideas stem from my prepubescent and high school experiences. They were the emotional basis for my desire to pursue art as a young adult. These ideas are expressed in scenes of various delusions of grandeur. I create passive/aggressive and sometimes self- deprecating scenarios of heroism, glory, or ardor to illustrate these delusions.

The content of my work focuses on adolescence, its persona, and its tendency toward dreams, melodrama, fantasy, and infatuation. The focus of those states of consciousness is motivated by the seemingly mystical energy of adolescent girls and their ability to inspire longing, elusive flirtation, clumsy acts of chivalry, and inevitable humiliation. I also call upon the psychic, social, erotic power of pop idolatry to realize the extent and scope of the delusional narrative.

Formally, my work is similarly crafted with a sense of obsession. This nature of the drawings and paintings is intended to reflect the clarity and scope of the fantasy-addled condition as well as arrive at a formal state of expression.

I use acrylic paint to reflect the synthetic quality of my fantasy. My paintings are generally the same scale because I see each painting as an ongoing storyboard chronicling the scope of the narrative.

The readymade appearance of the sculptures and some aspects of my video work are employed to tap into the culturally charged paraphernalia associated with rock stars, cheerleaders, and athletes.

My process is guided by the nature of the concept and what form I feel best personifies or expresses the idea. Some ideas are literary and suggest a picture, the concrete ideas suggest form, and aural/dynamic ideas suggest video.

The tension between my ability or inability to face my role of opportunity in these realities or fantasies is the central theme and pathos of my art. My intent is to depict these developmentally arrested visions in an attempt to court them somehow in my current experience.