By Keith Waits
Copyright 2013 by Keith Waits, all rights reserved.
Published in conjunction with Pure Uncut Candy.
Artist and musician Joel Pinkerton tells us about
his new work and his journey from tinkerer to found object artist.
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| Upstairs Galley at Zephyr. |
Arts-Louisville: Tell us
about the work in the new show, “More or Less,” currently at Zephyr Gallery.
Joel
Pinkerton: The work is what I call “3-D drawings” – welded steel rods
constructed, using simple tools, into 20 or so human figures in various poses.
They are covered with a masking film, which I found, abandoned, on a curb…my
work always involves found materials. This kind of “drawing,” if you will, goes
between medical charts of muscular structure, vascular pathways and skeletal
structure to a human figure bound with this plastic film and heat-fused to
encase it.
AL: You are known for, as
you say, using found objects in the past, and it was often figures made from
pots and pans and other random metal pieces.
JP:
I think the thing about found materials is that it always gives me a line or the
volume that the materials may have. This is maybe quite a bit different from what people are used to seeing. I’ve done similar figures with this steel and they
were like drawings with just a few lines done in kind of a relief fashion, and
the steel material kind of comes from the curb as well, being the kind of steel
rods used for political yard signs that you might find in the alleyways every
May and November.
AL: Looking at this work,
it seems there is something more elemental or basic about them, as if they were
gestural studies in a life drawing class.
JP:
Yeah. With drawing you ask yourself, "Is it ever really finished? Do you erase
the lines you don’t like?" So this is, in a sculptural way, that same process.
They were inspired by a drawing mannequin but brought into a different context and
given emotion, which is what I believe I’ve always been know for. You bring out
the gestures and make real characters out of them. All my work is rooted in
that.
AL: Zephyr has two floors
and, somewhat unusually, you will be using both levels?
JP:
Downstairs, when you walk in, I will have a figure like these, that is
positionable, but it will be three-times the size (of a normal human), whereas these
are three-times smaller. The viewers will find themselves in the middle, imposing
on a smaller figure just like the single large figure will impose upon them.
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| "More or Less" installation in progress on the ground floor of Zephyr. |
AL: So the viewer becomes
a part of the exhibit?
JP:
He does, whether he likes it or not (laughing). I intend to have a video surveillance
element so that when there is movement it will record those reactions; not
faces…I’m looking for bulk. Once I’ve recorded enough material, I may cull some
of that out and show it in the gallery. I’ve also experimented with stop-motion
and hope to have a short film showing some of these figures going through a
range of motion as if they were one.
AL: So people who come to
the opening should come back later to see the video you’ve added.
JP:
They should. One of the things I’ve encouraged in the announcement is, whether
you’re a student or, for anyone who likes to draw and is looking for figures
who can sustain a pose, there are some choices here. So bring your drawing
materials and spend a little time in Zephyr.
AL: What has inspired this
group of work?
JP:
I’m always changing. I’ve used this material before and the steel is small
enough that I don’t have to use special equipment. This goes back to classical
figures from the 20th century, and the large one will be along the size of the
David statue at 21c. I had this idea before that was placed there, but one of
the future ideas for the large piece is a photographic project where it’s
placed in public and photographed to play off the reaction from the public.
Kind of the same “wow” factor of that golden David statue.
AL: Is there sort of a
subculture of artists working with found or reclaimed materials?
JP:
Yes, there are, and I’ve heard many art students say they wish they had worked
more with found objects because of the cost today of canvas and paints, or
stone and marble, any of those things, with any artist who is struggling. I do
see more and more trained artists working with found materials. I’m self-taught
– I took an art appreciation course and I think I slept through most of it
[laughing].
AL: You say you do not
have formal training in art, how did you get started?
JP:
I was tinkering in the basement about 20 years ago, tinkering to the point to
where it became something of an obsession. I was in a corporate management
position but, unfortunately, the company I was working for was not that great, so
we parted ways. So I put a plan together to make sell art any way that I can, and I’ve been doing that for about 13 years now. It’s been a lot healthier than
the corporate position.
AL: Did the kind of
artists' community we have in Louisville help you or inspire you?
JP:
I had friends who were artists and knew other artists. I had always been a
tinkerer and a salvage person. I was the youngest of four kids, and there were
always broken GI Joes and other toys, so I would fashion something together. I
can remember a Christmas when I was 8 or 9, and I got a pedal car, a U.S. Navy
jeep (my dad was U.S. Navy), and about three days later I had the whole thing taken
apart. We managed to get it put back together, but he was pretty mad. Building
go-carts or scooters, in my day, were a busted pair of roller skates and a
plank, so we made do as kids and throughout life had handy skills or carpentry
skills.
AL: So your instincts as
an artist were developed in your childhood?
JP:
I think so. This exhibit about 3-D drawings? I was asked by a friend if I was
going to include schematics or drawings of my vision of how the show should
look. That sounds like a good thing to do, but I don’t draw very well; I don’t
practice it or have the patience for it. I like that tactile quality of getting
it in my hands, or looking at it, feeling it, seeing the shape of it, where
that takes me. It’s a series of parts and how the parts flow together in my
mind. The other pieces that I do kind of stretch the boundaries of the
imagination: inanimate objects come to life. People recognize these objects, but
they are stupefied seeing them used differently. I’m always trying to put life
into the pieces.
AL: Some of these things
you talk about: the lack of a formal art education, the instinctual approach,
is characteristic of folk art or so-called “primitive art.” How do you define
yourself as an artist?
JP:
There are 21st century folk artists who are a different generation
using what the last two generations have left, or the things that haven’t
decayed or been lost or recycled or buried. I work intuitively. I rarely have
any set thing I’m looking for, just a general idea. In the case of these new
pieces, one kind of bred another, which all of my figurative work tends to do: related but uniquely different. Everybody
sees things differently. People are afraid of art sometimes. “What’s that
really mean?” and it means what you see.
AL: Do you feel like
viewers tend to overthink art a lot of the time?
JP: Actually, I hope they do, because not enough viewers spend enough
time with
visual art. Unlike the music industry where a song gets listened to repeatedly,
with visual art you really have to put yourself in front of it. It's not just
streaming in the background. I hope people will spend time and not just rush
in. First Fridays are very social, but there’s not a lot of careful thought
given, so they should come back on Saturday!
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| Artist Joel Pinkerton. |
More or
Less: New Work from Joel Pinkerton
March
29 – May 11, 2013
Zephyr Gallery
610 E. Market St.
Louisville,
KY 40202
Hours
11-6 p.m., Thur.- Sat., or by appointment.
