Joshua: Hey Josh, it’s great to talk to you about your new show and your practice as a whole. Thanks for taking your time.  

Josh: No, thank you for having me. Anyone that knows me knows that I could talk about my work until the cows come home so I love being given the opportunity.  

Joshua: Well, that should make my job easier. Tell me about GILDED CAGE, was this work much of a deviation from your previous work, either conceptually or technically?  

Josh: Honestly, I constantly feel like I’m deviating somewhat from my previous work. It may not be super obvious at times but I’m always trying to improve how effectively I communicate an idea in my work. This show I have taken a bit more care technically and really worked hard on fully realising the rendering of each object. My usual mode of working was to make as much work as fast as humanly possible, where as with GILDED CAGE I really wanted to reduce the number of works and increase the quality of each piece.  

Joshua: There certainly is pressure nowadays to be producing a large amount of work. Especially with social media apps like Instagram rewarding artists who have a quick turnaround on works so they can post consistently, to appease the ever-hungry algorithm.  

Josh: For sure. Don’t even get me started. Its funny how choosing to slow down and create less work at a higher quality feels like a form of protest against the way in which these apps seem to be pushing us to create, meaning more work at a lower quality.  

Joshua: Yeah, creating work which caters to that sort of landscape definitely doesn’t feel conducive to making strong, well thought out and well-constructed work. Tell me about the show’s conceptual meaning. 

Josh: Well, it honestly changed a bit as I was making the work. Just in scope, I guess. But I’d say, the idea of GILDED CAGE came from wanting to make a series of work about the feeling of being trapped in one’s mind. I engage quite deeply with the idea of the separation between the mind and body, and I have often loved the idea of making work about the plight of the little voice in my head as documented by the consciousness observing it. I like to think about it sort of like my practice is a way for me to get to know me. You know what I mean?  

Joshua: Yeah, totally. Sort of like a meditation on the idea of the self?  

Josh: Exactly. As I started making the work I realised that quite a lot of them related to the idea of responsibly.  From that I started to think about the idea of the gilded cage being perhaps a bit more specifically being related to the nature of those responsibilities and how often being tied to things can feel like an inescapable trap as well as giving our lives meaning. 

Joshua: Can you give me an example from one of the works from the show? 

Josh: Yeah, so the painting “And That’s A Wrap” refers to my relationship with my partner’s dog, her name is Honey and she is the cutest little bundle of joy. When we got her, we were told she has some weird health condition where she has some neurological issue that causes her to not be able to feel her feet. Which right now just causes her to have an adorable little prancing walk but it actually neurodegenerative and there is nothing you can do to stop it so it may at some point mean we could have to put her down. I don’t even know if I have to tell you how upset even thinking about that makes me. So anyway, in this situation, I am responsible for the well-being of this sweet baby which can be a lot, with the looming threat of her condition but I would not trade Honey in for anything. It is a responsibility with a reward of getting the spend time with an adorable little puppy. Hence the gilded cage. And yeah, I feel like that same logic applies to all the works.  

Joshua: Okay, yeah. I can see that. That poor baby. Give her a cuddle for me. 

Josh: I will.  

Joshua: So, the gilded cage is in a broad sense a reference to the mind being observed by consciousness, trapped inside the body, but more specifically it refers to the specific instances of those similar kinds of relationships existing in the life of that mind? 

Josh: Yeah, Something like that. I feel like my work can at times get a little convoluted when I keep digging and digging for meaning. It’s something I both love and hate about myself. But I mean, even that kind of ties into the gilded cage thing. Actually, that’s even pretty much exactly what the work “ Your Change Is Zero Dollars And Zero Cent”, is about, spending too much time in my head.  

Joshua: Do you find it helpful to spend a lot of time talking to yourself when you’re thinking of new work?  

Josh: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I tend to like a lot more the work that I really labored over conceptually. Which often finds me asking myself a lot of questions and spending a lot of time in my own head. But you get trapped in there, you know.

Joshua: Do you find it hard to switch off? 

Josh: For sure. I feel like I don’t shut up. My mind is just constantly in chatter and honestly it can get pretty frustrating but I guess sometimes something interesting surfaces and I get to make a painting about so I don’t know, trying the make the best of a bad situation, I guess.  

Joshua: I hear you. It can definitely be hard to find that peace. At least it sounds like you’ve found a way to see it as a somewhat positive thing. Do you find the painting process helps to find a little quiet? 

Josh: Yes and no. It helps. 

Joshua: Do you see existence in general as a bit of a gilded cage? 

Josh: I definitely do. I mean, I enjoy existing. But it can be hard sometimes. I’ve certainly gone through some really challenging periods in my life.  When I was younger, I had a really hard time with anxiety and even now I wouldn’t say I’ve fully resolved it, but I have come to terms with it slightly. But that was a hard pill to swallow. And you know, that kind of ties into the responsibility thing. If I want to learn to enjoy existing, I must learn to take the good with the bad.  

Joshua: Learning to cope with suffering is one of the hardest parts of being conscious. In fact, it is THE  hard part of being conscious. A good life is one with as little suffering as possible but unfortunately it seems like suffering is an inescapable part of existing and yeah, you do have to learn to take the good with the bad.  

Josh: What a fun note to end the interview on. Existence is pain.  

Joshua: Yeah, I guess I’ll go now and try to come to terms with this newly found existential dread.  

Josh: Welcome to my world.  

Joshua: Did you have a positive note to end on? Any final thoughts, or details you’d like to share about your show?  

Josh: Umm… Yeah, I’m really proud of this work and I really am beginning to feel like I’m finding my voice as a visual artist. I mean, my future self may look back on this and snicker but yeah, this show really feels like the type of work I want to make and I’m excited to start working on the next project, which is sure to be even more depressing than this one! Fun! 

Joshua: Im also excited to see what you make next and thanks again for talking with me about your new show.  

Josh: No problem. Thanks!