006 PERFORMANCE
LIVE CONVERSATION WITH ARTIST JOSEPH FONTINHA
recorded on
www.facebook.com/LOLWOWSOS/
October 12, 2019
LOL/WOW/SOS: Joseph, good morning! Glad to finally meet you. I have been admiring your videos with the hashtag #itisaboutpaintingwithoutpainting on social media for quite some time. What are you up to today? Creating or working? Do you have a few minutes to start the conversation that we will be doing over the next few days?
Joseph Fontinha: I am working on several props for upcoming videos. Mostly collage-based – magazine centric, and in some cases, simple machines. Lately I have been harvesting visual imagery from things like food and fitness magazines, and adapting them for video-based collage work that puts me in the midst of the culture machine. I am doing yoga, getting my eyes checked, eating doggie treats, etc. It is incredibly self-indulgent, it is a light-hearted critique on what we value as a culture. I am currently making a simple machine in the hopes that I can wear it and adjust the turning parts, it is an eye exam apparatus. Making the still move, and the play between stillness (often in the model, in this case, me) and that which is moving (everything else?) is a sub-interest. #stillandstillmoving is another hashtag I use a lot, referring to T.S. Eliot's quote about the landscape in one of his Four Quartets.
LOL/WOW/SOS: Thanks for the response and for posting the photo with your new project! There are many subjects to discuss pertaining to your art. First, tell us when and how you, as a talented and very productive painter, came up with the idea of making videos and using yourself as a model? Did you stop painting with a brush?
Joseph Fontinha: LOL/WOW/SOS good question. At a point about 2 years ago I started recording myself while painting – and in the playback, all of the subtle things that I thought were explicit in the paintings were much more so in those early videos. The aggression, the tempo, the restraint, the preparation – it was never clearer than in video format. Then I started making paintings with the documentation in mind – then I was hooked. I paint props, backdrops, my body –many surfaces with a brush as I prepare for a shoot – and everything I know about how to maintain a studio practice I learned from painting. No matter how much I dematerialize, my viewpoint (itself a painter’s obsession) is that of a painter.
LOL/WOW/SOS: Thank you for sharing this with us. When I look at your work, all kind of references come to my mind such as the imagery and performances of the early 20th-century futurist, constructivist and DADA movements, who attempted to expand the space of painting into real space and actually enacted this. I also see references to Yves Klein’s artist practice of the 50s which combined performance, painting, and personal cult. The latter also makes me think of Gilbert and George of the 70s … But foremost, your work brings me to think of Harold Rosenberg’s 1952 essay “The American Action Painters,” where he describes Abstract Expressionism as a new form of painting; where the traditional space and composition of painting was replaced by an action.
Rosenberg states that “The act-painting is of the same metaphysical substance as the artist’s existence. The new painting has broken down the very distinction between art and life.” It is as if in this process, the painter himself, by acting on the canvas, becomes absorbed into the painting. I would be curious to know if any of these references have any influence on your practice? Would love to see more of your work, please post a few more of your videos under your post. Looking forward to your answer.
Joseph Fontinha: I know the Rosenberg essay well, I had to revisit it because it has been a while, but some highlights in my own notes – "a painting that is an act is inseparable from the biography of the artist," and "in a single stroke the painter exists." These ideas were loud for me, as well as writings like Jean Clay's “Painting in Shreds.” I think even more weighty were some writings by Dubuffet. I first saw them in October Magazine issue 154 about his DIY painting manual, "Paint Boldly," which really echoes the Rosenberg sentiment – "The important thing was to cast off all the usual tools of painting - canvases, easels, brushes, paint tubes - which bring about a paralyzing effect on whoever uses them." Like many contemporary ideas – it is about formatting – not a change in conceptual or thematic content, it is about freedom – it is re-skilling more than de-skilling – it is about going where the action is – where the viewing is – and the feeling – something the action painters certainly understood. Very much like Proustian time – "the Proustian present can only be the moment of the sentence production," said Jameson, and while the sentence means nothing, it means so much to me and I think that this doubling of time – this concept of the shared viewership between maker and consumer – this is as painterly as linear perspective. I guess what I appreciate about the action painters is their willingness to feel it completely, to give entirely, to truly document human experience as they knew it. I think this is my focus too. Below is a painting I just made.
LOL/WOW/SOS: Thanks for sharing these insights pertaining to your relationship to painting. I am curious about the fact that in your work, there are several components/relationships that sort of collapse into themselves. First, there is the artist and model relationship, which you replace by being the painter and acting as the model simultaneously. Second, there is the question of time pertaining to painting. Usually a painting is viewed once it has been finished; here the painting is the performance, the painting is being viewed as it is being made. Third, the visitor/viewer has been replaced by the gaze of the camera lens. Ultimately, as you watch the recording of the video, you, besides being the painter and model, also become the principal viewer. So, you have a whole system/creative space set up which is completely self-sufficient and centered on one figure, the painter himself. There are many questions about the gaze raised by the work. One wonders, who is looking at who and for what reason? When contemplating your work, I can’t help but thinking about the essay “Las Meninas” by Michel Foucault, published in his book “Order of Things.” You also mention that Jameson is a big influence. What are the ideas of Jameson that inform your work?
Joseph Fontinha: LOL/WOW/SOS a lot to unpack, and very thoughtful observations on your part. Extending the viewing, or durational viewing, is always a goal of mine – and so yes, sharing more of the process is important for that. I think that painters care a lot about their process, it is almost sacred. Sometimes that care clouds my ability to see the work simply for what it is, and it also negates my ability to create images, as I often think a painting is a documentation of time invested, so that kind of performative time is working on many levels to both reveal process, but to make it subject matter as well. I always strive to truly see what is happening before me, as though a spectator, with fresh eyes, and sometimes this takes me in a direction I did not plan. The camera is the gaze quite often, I actually use the camera throughout. Often it is a live feed that only I see, I work in front of it, and often have it tethered to a monitor so that I can see what it looks like, what I am doing, that is. This is particularly important with illusionary pieces, where the work is made specific to the viewpoint of the camera, lining things up, framing them, checking for colour balance – it is really an integral part of the work. I had a piece in a show a couple years ago called, "If Phones Did All Our Viewing," and in it there were two cameras pointed toward the same wall painting with columns in front of it, which also contained paintings that corresponded to the wall. Basically, in one camera you could see a square, in the other, two towers – all of this done by playing into each camera’s unique viewing angle. I think this is a perfect example of what you are talking about.
Joseph Fontinha: In addition, the model and the self-centric nature of the work, I always thought of it as anti-selfies – most often not showing facial detail, but providing all of the indulgence one expects from today’s visual culture.
LOL/WOW/SOS: Thank you for this in-depth explanation about the double use of “time” in your work and your own use of the camera to sort of allow yourself to distance yourself from your own creative subjectivity/process. As an outside viewer, I agree that your work comes across as mocking the selfie-craze in a humorous way. It has been a great joy learning more about your work, but before we end our conversation, I would like to ask you a last question pertaining to the production of your work. You seem to have a series of assistants working for you. Could you tell us a little more about them? Also, by my curiosity, would you like to share a picture of your studio?
Joseph Fontinha: One of the best things about moving away from the easel a bit has been collaborating with other artists, but also welcoming people into the studio. My work requires another set of eyes behind the camera as I am posed, often without knowledge of the shot until post-production. My assistants are my kids, and the conversations we have had while in prep for a shoot have been some of the best I’ve ever had. It has been a fresh look at what I’m doing, through the eyes of my daughters. For 20 years I painted alone in the studio, and missed a lot – now I feel like I can make work anywhere, anywhere there is that conversation.
LOL/WOW/SOS: Thank you for your answer and for sharing this video of your studio! Great that you are working with your kids, they seem to be the best teammates. It appears that your new way of working and thinking about painting has opened up your practice in so many positive ways. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences here on LOL/WOW/SOS. It has been a pleasure to converse with you. We can’t wait to experience your next videos and paintings!
For more information about Joseph Fontinha’s art you are welcome to consult: