Josh Green
Hollow Myth
@josh_green_artist
The body of work called “Hollow Myth” consists of still life oil paintings on canvas and wood panels painted in the style of classical western realism. The still lives depict plaster sculptures and projected AI-generated imagery.
Exhibition Statement:
“I believe that the conflicts which are happening within me, in my search for meaning, are a reflection of what is happening in our culture on a larger scale. I bounce between the bleakness of science andits implicit philosophies of atheism, nihilism, and determinism, and alternatively to the irrational conformity to my inherited myths (i.e., Christianity, Capitalism, Liberalism, etc.). While myths offer order, they can blind us from reason and become tyrannical. So, I create images, visual analogs of my uncertainty, in the medium of western oil painting, the medium that depicted and propagatedthe great myths of the past. The hollow mythology ofmy paintings is me simply stating my experience.”
— Josh Green
The Theater of Perception 2021
Oil on canvas
I had never seen the actual “Dream of Constantine” by Piero della Francesca, but the printed image was strong enough to hold my attention for many years. Something about the way the tent opened has a deep significance that I cannot put into words. I hoped to discover what that significance was inside me that I was projecting onto the image. I began by building the motif. I dipped a cotton cloth into wet plaster and draped it over a stick. I ran wire from underneath to give structure to the rising folds and cut a slit up the center. Once it dried, I hung it on my still life stage and projected the image of the fresco onto it. This is what I had been doing in my head, projecting inner significance onto something real, and now I had brought that internal process into the physical world so that I could observe it externally. Through painting, I layered reality, projection, and translation onto the canvas in exactly the same way I am doing all day in between my green eyes.
A Fool on Stage 2021
Oil on canvas
The word persona in Latin means mask, or a character played on stage. It is the root of the word person and personality. Here I have built a persona suspended over a fabric draped stage which became a bed to dream a life on. Beneath her I placed the world, a radically simplified world of cut-up cardboard slapdashed together and glowing a synthetic green. The role this persona plays is the fool, a person who suffers from their ignorance. A quixotic fool who lives in a great fantasy of their own, and to be awakened from this fantasy is to lose all meaning in life.
The Theater of Perception, oil on canvas 4' x 5'
2 A Fool on Stage, oil on canvas, 5’ x 6’
Constructions 2020-2021
Oil on wood panel
The collection of paintings called, “Constructions” appear as if I slung a bucket of hydrochloric acid onto western painting and melted out all the substance. This glistening Dairy Queen slurpy art is uncomfortably empty. I have hollowed out the genre and have left only the illusion. These paintings just are as life for an atheist just is. They exist because of chance decisions made intuitively in my open-ended artistic process, rather than strict adherence to depicting a concept.
Contemplation of the Body- 10” x 12”, oil on wood panel
Construction: Childhood Memory- 12” x 10”, oil on wood panel
Triumph- 36” x 24”, oil on wood panel
Scortch- 14” x 16”, oil on wood
Olympia- 24” x 36”, oil on wood panel
Memory of Mt. Fuji- 16” x 12”, oil on wood panel
Study for the Theater- 8” x 11”, oil on wood panel
Spectrum- 24” x 20”, oil on wood panel
Cerebral Space- 24” x 30”, oil on wood panel
Memory of Mt.Fuji- 11” x 10”, oil on wood panel
Projections 2021
Oil on wood panel
The group of paintings I call “Projections” were made by projecting artificially generated imagery (GAN) onto a still life stage and sculptures. What I love about AI images is their emptiness. Technically, there is no authorship behind them. The lack of its understanding of what a mountain is, what a cloud is, etc. is shocking to see in an image. But now, I use this imagery in place of my own creativity. In essence, I have outsourced the most sacred part of my art practice to a machine. What does it mean? Is it significant? I’m not sure, but I find it interesting. The AI generators are an externalization of my own stream of thought. I then project this stream of thought onto real objects, and together they are dissonant. The skewed projected landscapes are an analogy for my warped lens of subjectivity.
Self Portrait- 12” x 10”, oil on wood pane
GAN-scape- 12” x 10”, oil on wood panel
Persona - 12” x 10”, oil on wood panel