Our everyday lives are fraught with mundane rituals and mythologies that are often times rootless or displaced from their origins. I create art that explores contemporary myth, ritual and invention within the American cultural landscape. The American warrior myth, muscle cars, consumer appliances, punk rock and biker culture are common themes found in my participatory installations and performance-based sculpture. Through these artworks I confront rolesof waste, escapism, and apocalypse as the yarn from which the American cultural quilt is sewn. I also attempt to remove the role of spectator and blur the line between audience and artwork.  This method echoes the all-American spectacle of pro-wrestling. The wrestlers, the ring, and the audience have a shared role in the performance, creating an exaggerated expression of our inner desires, beliefs, and emotions. My performance based artworks hope to embody a rebel spirit that can provoke conversations around sub-cultures that historically, “buck the system”, “stick it to the man”, or challenge the cultural landscape that governs our everyday experience.

Joshua Short © 2011