2AM: Contingency by UNCG School of Art Student Joshua Wilson

The core of my work focuses on narratives that have been drawn from history and mythology/religion, focusing primarily on relating elements such as spiritual belief, explanations for natural phenomena, and the nature of human existence often present within these narratives against contemporary society. Playing with several ideas involving the persistence of human belief systems and our contemporary understanding of ourselves and our environment, I relate many of our modern social structures back to those of the distant past as well as reflecting on differences between them. This content allows me to explore the evolution of established systems, and of human thought as a whole.

I interpret and build these narrative worlds through an investigative process of mark making where each decision informs the next, allowing space, form and atmosphere to evolve and contextualize as the work progresses. The artwork I produce through this process embodies an essence of contemporary street art, a practice that presents artwork outside of the gallery to a public audience that I have now brought back into the realm of “painting proper”. My use of materials such as acrylic, spray paint, charcoal and other dry/ fast drying materials allows me to quickly build a work up, block elements out and reshape them into a decision that will hopefully continue to evolve the work. Ultimately my work strives for a point of unification between these relationships where the viewer is allowed to move amongst them and carefully examine the piece as fragments of information before understanding the piece as a whole.

http://www.greensboroprojectspace.com/projects/2am-contingency