Joseph Letourneau
Artist Statement
As a performance artist and sculptor, I use art as an excuse to create situations and environments that fulfill my wildest fantasies and get myself into mischief. While my performances and sculptures can be deeply personal investigations into my thoughts and desires, they also speak to the universal thoughts and desires we all have as Americans and as human beings.
My performance art often begins with a motif or image from Americana that is well ingrained into our collective subconscious and should be familiar to the audience. These motifs usually contain objects or symbols with connections to things I find peculiar and interesting, like romance, sex, or masculinity. I then introduce subtle changes to these familiar images, such as a repetition in its occurrence, a change in its situation, or a combination with other objects, and transform these symbols to the point where they become something else entirely. My body is used not only as a tool in expressing these ideas but is also often the source of material or inspiration for my work.
While performance art is often powerful, it's also often ephemeral; after the fleeting moments of its existence have passed, we're often left with nothing but memories. My work in sculpture tries to bridge that gap between the performance work I need to do and my desire for a physical object that can be preserved, viewed, and (hopefully) bought and sold. Photographic or video documentation of my performances or actions are usually accompanied by the objects used in the work, transforming them like readymades from object to artwork. And for those pieces that involve duration or collection, the best way of representing my ideas can sometimes manifest itself as reliquary or shrine-like sculptures which elevate the simple and ordinary items into something more.
April 2010
