04 January 2010

Josh Brand






















Untitled
11"x17"
2008

"Such dissonance between physical fact and psychic effect is closely related to Brand’s process, which here includes leaving out light-sensitive paper around his apartment, with different segments exposed to a mix of natural and artificial light. The surfaces pick up receding planes, tiers, and mantles of light before ever having entered the darkroom. Not unlike canvases being primed or distressed, these grounds are prepped via daily routine and serendipity. Further entanglements with time-lapse and sequence arise in the manifold steps that follow. Scratched and incised directly on the surface of photo paper, Brand’s glyph-like line drawings can readily alternate between positive and negative according to the given composition. Varied and softened by a contact print process that flips an initial cut—exposing the laceration to light and imprinting its impression on a new sheet of paper below—scumbled nuances of trace and shadow evolve via this generational approach to printing. Whether employed in the darkroom or without, Brand joins the technique of the photogram with his knowledge of advanced color printing ratios to blur and obfuscate the boundary between objective imprint and abstract shape." fionn meade

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