goldsworthy of the coffee shop

Jonathan Brilliant is a young American installation artist utilising weaving, stacking and staining techniques to create large scale site-specific sculpture from coffee stirrers, coffee cups and more. “In this ongoing series of work, I explore my sense that the coffee shop and related consumer environs are more organic and nurturing than the ‘real’ natural environment”.

As I have a loving relationship with nature, I find this statement hard to reconcile, I can see how the coffee shop might be felt a singular nurturing environment in the hostile concrete jungle of modern cities. Brilliant’s chosen profession will suit him then as he spends weeks on end on-site inside, building his creations from dawn til dusk. Not a bear in sight!

He is in Australia right now and if you’re in QLD, you can go see the piece above which he just finished yesterday! It was his response to the dilly bags made by indigenous basketweavers in far north Queensland as artist in residence at the Cairns Festival. It’s free to visit and you can even be a part of its demolition and take a little piece home. It comes down on my birthday.. if only I had known, I would have given myself a trip to the sunshine state…

Launch: Wednesday 22 August 6.30pm – All welcome

Demolition: Sunday 2 September 2pm  Cost: Free

Open: 9am – 4.30pm weekdays + 10am – 2.30pm weekends

Venue: Cairns Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre

www.jonathanbrilliant.com | www.tanksartsentre.com

He’s done some incredibly mindbending work. He is also a drummer and makes great little stop motion films of all his installations like the one below.

x H.

P.S. It was easy to choose this one because it was in the Goodall Gallery!