Joseph Hughes
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01 / 20
Joseph Hughes makes familiar things behave strangely. Road signs, everyday objects, design references and his own body: he takes what is already there, measures it precisely, and rearranges it until it means something other than what it was built to mean. The results can resemble collage, but nothing is improvised. They are constructed through measurement, repetition and constraint.
The scale shifts constantly, from a change so small it is almost overlooked (a duplicated word, a repaired mirror, a magnetic bullet hole) to sculptures, installations and architectural interventions. A twenty-sided ball built from borrowed road signs stops warning you to stop and starts inviting movement. The work is a set of visual puns played with a straight face, held together by counting rather than chance.
He is currently taking time to focus on Hairy Styles, an upcoming artist publication, marking a shift in his practice towards writing and publishing as primary media.