Contemporary Photographer Series - Joshua Brinlee
Joshua Brinlee is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Memphis, TN. He received his BFA and MFA from Memphis College of Art in Studio Art. Josh holds the position of Associate Professor of Foundations at the University of Mississippi. He employs digital and analog techniques to create his self-portraits. His work explores concepts of gender, identity, originality, and authenticity through self-portraiture.
ETSU MFA Studio Arts Candidate, Annie Hutchins: Hi, Josh. Thank you so much for doing this! To start, what are some of the inspirations behind your work?
Joshua Brinlee: Within my work, being LGBTQ queer in the South, I feel as if my voice is not always heard. I utilize self-portraiture, even though I hate pictures of myself, as a way to communicate my views or thoughts on masculinity and my position. By using myself, I am able to work with a readily available subject. In my work, I've been dealing more with these satirical moments of human behavior where I'm taking on these characters based on reality, off of social media, daily news, and just random everyday moments. For me, it's just another way to use my voice. I feel like it's easier to talk about complicated subjects through humor and satire, and it becomes a little bit more digestible.
Annie Hutchins: Who are you looking at artist-wise?
Joshua Brinlee: My go-to is always Cindy Sherman. Cindy Sherman uses herself as her subject because she's there. I'm there. I'm here. I'm constructing. Granted, she doesn't recognize them as self-portraits, but they are more or less kind of caricatures. With my work, they start to become that. I'm also interjecting my own personal views into them. Yeah, it's also the idea of being able to dress up and play a role or character, but that character isn't good all the time. It's just like actors. That they play a role, yeah, they can be very problematic or amazing. But for me, ultimately, it is just another outlet or a way to use my voice and speak to issues that are important to me.
Annie Hutchins: So, about your newer work. Has it been a significant change for you? You previously worked with analog projections, and now, you're working with digital compositions.
Joshua Brinlee: No, it's just a new direction. My series change pretty regularly. I'm not interested in creating the same photos over and over again, so that's why I work in series so that I can work with it as long as I need to. I can also put one project aside and start something else if my interest shifts. It's good for your brain to have different things to work on, at least for me. Also, it helps me to give myself a break from a project and come back to it with a fresh perspective.
Annie Hutchins: You started this around 2019 to 2020, correct?
Joshua Brinlee: Yeah, it was sometime around there. I can't remember exactly when I started messing around with them, and I didn't know what would happen with them or where they would go. I got to a point where when I was making them, I felt something. Like you know when you're doing something you like, and I felt too. With art, we as artists always feel like our work has to be this serious thing all the time, and I'm a very humorous person. I like to tell jokes and laugh and have a good time. I feel like this work embodies myself through conversations on issues that concern me or shed light on issues while also adding a satirical edge to my thoughts.
Annie Hutchins: What is your process for creating the images?
Joshua Brinlee: I like taking images you would see on Google or some other search engine and taking them and making them my own. I do appropriate imagery proudly. I do not buy stock images. I take segments and pieces from Google searches. I do fully recognize that I call these digital collages, but they take on a surrealist aspect. I'm not interested in that part of the collage where it becomes a juxtaposition of elements and different ideas. It's more like free association, where you're dealing with particular imagery that can be positioned in different ways. It takes on various ideas that are more dream-like paradoxes, and I'm more interested in these collages that have been more constructed and trying to make them seamless. However, at the same time, I want the viewer to know that they're constructed, so it's trying to find a balance between them.
Annie Hutchins: I want to circle back to something you mentioned earlier. You were talking about how your new work has more of a satirical or humorous way of looking at these topics. Could you elaborate more on that?
Joshua Brinlee: Yeah, absolutely! I was looking at old political cartoons where they're basically critiquing society through these exaggerated characters. After that, I analyzed the characters in shows like Saturday Night Live, and they got me very interested in satire as parody. Where I go from here with that, I'm open. I'm excited about where they could go. I've had a lot of success with them, not that that's important. While yes, that's important to me, just being able to make the work and having the opportunity to display it is exciting also. I've gotten into some solid exhibitions and am just excited about the work. It feels great working on a series I'm not tired of yet. This is a huge thing because normally, by now, I would be tired of a series, but this one is only expanding more.
Annie Hutchins: Where are you hoping to see this work go in the future?
Joshua Brinlee: I'm working on a piece now inspired by a book by T.J. Klune. He's an LGBTQ writer I really enjoy. I've also been creating these Renaissance fair characters that I call Pleasure fair. I'm touching on a lot of topics right now, but I'm really happy with the direction of the teacher and the abortion images. I want to start focusing on more important conversations, like school shootings, drag queens, and book burnings. I'm fascinated and horrified at examining the cyclical nature of history.
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