Joe Brittain
seven marble pillars

This series is a profoundly personal turn for Brittain, testing the capacity of material to measure human behavior and experiences of time.

Though the specters of Brittain’s childhood farm have materialized in his works before, he now addresses the spiritual dimensions of his upbringing. Seven marble pillars of almost human stature become sympathetic collaborators in linguistic and physical exertion. They bear witness to the repetition and the frustration of making manifest a mystical experience, which is finally as fugitive as running ink.

Intercourse, installation at Catinca Tabacaru, New York 2015

Proportionless Jewel (left), 2015 ink on marble, 64 × 5 × 4 in

Oceanic Feelings (right), 2015, ink on marble, 68 × 5 × 4.5 in

Intercourse, 2015 ink on marble, 62 × 5 × 4.5 in

I and Thou, 2015, ink on marble, 72 × 4.5 × 5 in

The Word, 2015, ink on marble, 78 × 4 × 5.5 in

The word (left), 2015 ink on marble, 78 × 4 × 5.5 in

prayer (right), 2015, ink on marble, 60 × 5.5 × 4.75 inches

I and Thou, 2015 (detail)