Artfields installation artist: Jonathan Brilliant
Jonathan Brilliant
ArtFields Location: Ragsdale Old Building (ROB)
jonathanbrilliant.com
Born and raised in Charleston, but currently residing in Raleigh, NC, Jonathan Brilliant received a BFA from College of Charleston and later his MFA in spatial arts from San Jose State University. Brilliant’s ongoing series of artwork, from his Have Sticks, Will Travel Tour, incorporates materials from and related to the contemporary coffee shop—including wooden stir sticks, coffee cup sleeves, straws, lids, napkins, and the cups themselves. With these materials at his disposal, Brilliant creates large-scale, site-specific, site-responsive sculptures. He describes these as more of a series of abstract drawings in space—where “instead of paper or pens, the exhibition venue itself becomes my paper, and the sticks, sleeves and other materials are how I make my marks within that given space.” Brilliant is excited about the opportunity to build around and through a new space at ArtFields, working with the skylights and beams and using various techniques such as weaving, stacking, welding, drawing, rusting, beating and drumming to create his piece—it promises to be an installation you can’t miss.
AM: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to become a professional artist?
JB: I was born in 1976 in Charleston SC. After dropping out of high school in 1994, I moved to Alaska and worked a series of odd jobs including work as a mascott for a fireworks store, and working in a new and used music store. After moving back home, I enrolled in the College of Charleston – somewhere around 1998. I began taking drawing classes in the fall of 1999, and from there went on to graduate in 2002 with a BA in Studio Art, and in 2007 I got my MFA from San Jose State University. After that I completed a series of residencies where I developed much of the work and ideas that drive what I am doing today. In 2009 I accidentally began my Have Sticks Will Travel Tour, and what was meant to be a four-month block of shows has quite unexpectedly consumed the last four years of my life.
AM: What draws you to a particular medium? How do you arrive at a concept for each site-specific installation?
JB: Currently, I work with materials from, and related to, the contemporary coffee shop. In particular, I’m interested in the materials within the shop where people would have direct contact. This is why I work with the following set of materials: coffee stir sticks, coffee cup sleeves, straws, lids, napkins, and the cups themselves. Depending on time, space, and the layout of a venue, I will use one or all of these materials to create site-responsive works. The individual installations I’ve been making for the last seven years are all part of the same series of coffee shop-derived works. I think of my installations as just a big series of abstract drawings in space. In my case instead of paper or pens, the exhibition venue itself is my paper, and the sticks, sleeves, and other materials are how I make my marks within that given space.
Can you tell us anything about the installation you are creating for ArtFields? Is it a brand new concept, or a theme or project you’ve been working on for a while?
JB: The Lake City piece will be the next in the Have Sticks Will Travel series of work. As with all the work in this series, I will begin the Lake City piece where I finished my last piece, In Tension, which was in Birmingham Alabama. In that show all of the elements were suspended from tensioned cables, then woven and stacked together to create the work. When I arrive in Lake City, I’ll begin by tensioning and shaping a stacked coffee cup sleeve piece and then I will begin weaving sticks together. All of the work will be created on site, so the specifics will happen as I respond to the time working and the space itself.
AM: What do you hope people take away from your work? What are you trying to communicate?
JB: I choose to work this way because I want to, whenever possible, create directly in the space where the work is to be experienced. This method ensures that the viewer experiences the work exactly where it was created and they really will see my response to the space. I hope that people continue to have an experience with the work that they could not get simply from documentation. To this day the greatest compliment and experience I hear from viewers is, “This work looks so much better in person than it did online.”
AM: What made you decide to get involved with ArtFields in its inaugural year? What do you see as being the benefits or challenges of being involved?
JB: I was invited by curator, Erin Glaze Nathanson. I worked with Erin four years ago on one of my first big commissioned installations, and when she contacted me I was thrilled to work with her again. From the images I’ve seen of the space so far I’m also really excited about the skylight and the beams that run through the space – I think they will provide me some really interesting opportunities to build around and through.
AM: What would people be surprised to know about you?
JB: I don’t really drink that much coffee.
AM: What is your favorite place to travel? Or where would you like to next explore?
JB: I am looking forward to next exploring Lake City while I’m in residence there!
Words: Jessica Dyer
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