Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Hi, I’m Joshua Gottmanns. I’m a writer and producer of music, and I’m also an artist working with installation, sculpture and photography. I finished my diploma in fine arts in Berlin last year, and I’m currently enrolled in the master programme at HfbK. I also work as a freelance artist, musician and part-time social worker. My favorite food at the moment is Phở. It’s my favorite late breakfast.
What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on?
I recently had the pleasure of releasing a music sampler (https://angelscarryguns.
I’ve also been working on my diploma, where I’ve compiled 116 pages of my writing. Right now, I’m working on a single work of fiction, which is a new challenge for me.
I’m excited to be planning two exhibitions after a few months of taking a break. I’m hoping to organize these in Düsseldorf and Berlin around autumn next year.
What is one of the bigger challenges you and/or other artists are struggling with these days and how do you see it developing?
Artists today have to deal with a lot more distractions than they used to, which makes it harder for them to focus on their art. Imagine being an artist in the ’80s, with less distortion, less distraction and less completion. I’m not nostalgic about that time, but we have to think about the freedoms we have and what we can do with them instead of washing potential down the gutter by feeding algorithms. We need to remind ourselves why we’re making art and what it should look like if we’re making the best art we can.
You work alongside Kurt often enough to consider this collaboration a whole new perspective as if it could be coming from a combined individual. Do you find this to be true?
We’ve always had different ways of working together. One is working together in the studio, which is usually pretty wild and not really productive in the sense that we don’t really produce anything good, but we allow ourselves to just play and dive deep into materials and ideas without fear of overdoing, missing or destroying the actual artwork. That happens.
Then, after collecting and reassessing all that chaos, we usually find bits and pieces to follow up on. This could be material combinations, titles, single words, collages, or situations inside the studio, and these often happened and fell into place by accident. So it’s really important to collect these elements and decide what to go ahead with. Throwing away and cleaning out is crucial too.
Then, the final step is to peel off the layers we don’t need or want and find a thing, an essence maybe, a most stable or most fragile object or image or situation and work on it until we’re both happy with it for the moment.
I think, even though we’re pretty close, we’re always questioning ourselves and each other, so I’d say we’re not exactly a single mind or a combined individual. We’re both 100%, not 50% each. But I know that might look like it from the outside, and I think that’s because we think of artists and their processes in a certain way. Most successful artists have studios, and sometimes they don’t even touch a work of theirs. We wouldn’t question their authorship or suggest that they’re combined with whoever is working for or with them.
How does collaboration play a part in your practice? Do you think this operates similarly in your individual work?
It’s really different, because the work alone is like a monologue, but when you do it together it’s a dialogue. Both are in constant flux. They’re both kind of made up to work within a set framework.
Do you conjure a narrative when making certain pieces?
Absolutely. Often, a narrative grows and develops from one work to the next. Sometimes it stops for a bit, then picks up again with another narrative, and carries on from there. I think the story in an artist’s work should be something that’s always changing and growing. It’s almost ethereal, in a way. Sometimes vague, sometimes in your face. Sometimes you can see it more clearly, and sometimes less, but there’s always something there, glimmering, ready to burn brightly. This keeps things interesting for both the artist and the audience.
How has your work evolved over time and how did you start working together?
Things can be so much more professional if we want them to be. We learned so much from each other and from other people. We learned everything about the materials and processes we use to how to talk to gallerists and collectors, how to build transport cases, how to install works.
At the same time, we managed to stay close and to also allow each other to pause and breathe, to wait and be gracious with one another. I think that’s really valuable and rare, and I’m glad we put friendship first. It’s a great foundation for working creatively and growing together.
What was the last show you saw that stuck out to you?
Me and my partner went to Venice recently, and we saw an amazing room inside Palazzo Gramisi. We’d seen it in the film Don’t Look Now and just had to visit, even though it’s only a short scene in the film. If you’re ever in Venice, it’s definitely worth a visit. I don’t think it would lend itself well to a photo, or to being told about it, so I won’t even try.
I did think of Jason Dodge and Paul Thek at Schinkel Pavillon today though. That was great. Michael E. Smith at Secession in Vienna, Isa Genzken in Nationalgalerie, Thomas Hirschhorns Walser Skulptur in Biel, everything June Crespo does, and I wish I could see more Mike Kelley. I just missed the retrospective in Düsseldorf. What a bummer.
What are you really excited about right now?
I bought a Nizo 8mm camera and I’ll start filming after Christmas.
Interview conducted and edited by Liam Owings