deep brand recognition

"perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than the ordeal it demands on a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality." Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

For our viewing pleasure this week is a small series of fun and whimsical paintings by Josh Sands, simply entitled "buttons." These are five of six small works that appeared last month in the "four artists show..." In this grouping they evoke the possibilities of small clothing accessories taking flight, or perhaps gravitating through space. Individually each small piece appears to be imprisoning the buttons or playfully weaving in and out of them. Then again could they be in seperate stages of application, to a garment? Whether being sewn or escaping reality; clearly no one will know for sure. What is known about the piece is through carefully deciphering contextual clues from the artist himself.

Perhaps what we are seeing is simply the glorifying of a simple item that holds such great and often times underappreciated importance to our species. This unique and humble item can often times fade into the background of our lives like suspenders (not glorified enough either), zippers, or belt-loops. Yet their necessity is greater than ever with the ongoing butt-crack epidemic of the 2000's. Putting this small object up onto the great pedastal of art, seems a valiant and poignant attempt to dramatize the mundane in all of us. In fact the little things are what it IS all about.



Then it was brought to my attention that latent in the buttton's series is an attempt to use color as its own entity to associate another kind of button into the spot light in our minds. It is not known if it was the artists intention to make the pieces hint at Super Nintendo controllers, with their odd colored buttons, or not. The comparison seems to be there upon viewing. Even the shape of the individual canvasses look somewhat like game controllers. It is this type of brand recognition that may be permanently creeping into young peoples perceptions of art in general, however subconcious. Then again it could be a clever trick by the artist to facilitate the possibilities of multiple interpretations. Sneaky!


For fun here are some photos of the artist hard at work in 2006 at his Hyde House studio in Milwaukee, Wi.


A colorful eyeful!