A blizzard in a phone booth, blue tarps and more with Joseph Fontinha

I met Lakeville-based multidisciplinary artist Joseph Fontinha for the first time several months ago at the opening of a group exhibition called “Three” at the Attleboro Art Museum.

Fascinated with a particular work, I invited him to sit down with me for a BART (bar + art) Chat.

A few weeks later, at a relatively quiet table at Freestones, I ordered a martini. Fontinha opted for a gin-and-tonic.

Don Wilkinson: Joe, I want to talk about “Blizzard Booth.” After I saw it at the opening, I made a point of walking around reading the artist’s name tags to ask about it. I met your collaborator first.

Joseph Fontinha: Yes, Steve Sherrick.

DW: “Blizzard Booth,” was a sculptural work — the size of a phone booth — with video displays on three sides. How did this collaboration with Steve come about?

JF: One of my goals this year has been to work more with other artists. He’s a cinematographer and the husband of a friend of mine. And he was also looking to branch out.

He works on large Hollywood movies, filming out of planes. He’s worked on “Godzilla” and things like that. I knew I wanted to video myself in this pretend phone booth. And I wanted to make it look like it was in a blizzard INSIDE a phone booth. So I called on him to do the cinematography so I could concentrate on the acting.

DW: Beyond video and acting, there is a sculptural element.

JF: And in the video, I’m on a fake cellphone — which asks the question “why am in this phone booth if I’m on a cellphone?” Plus it was snowing...inside. We filmed during a blizzard. I definitely got frostbite.

But we thought it would be funny — I’m always looking for that kind of twist in my work.

DW: Did Steve set up three cameras to film from three sides?

JF: No. He filmed each separately. We did about three minutes from this angle, another angle opposite, and then one perpendicular. Nothing lines up. To me, it’s basic cubism. It’s the same moment happening in three different time periods. It was a challenge.

DW: Looking at that piece, I was keenly aware that there was a technician and there was an artist…

JF: Steve has said that many times. My work has gotten more and more conceptual and I’ve become more of a performer in my work. I wanted to free myself (from the technical) so I could focus on performance and conceptualizing. And his technical ability allowed me to do that.

He knew to cover the camera in the snow. I wouldn’t have thought of that.

DW: I’ve been looking at your “Blue Tarp” video series. In one, it appears that the tarp is being utilized as a straightjacket.

JF: Yes, I made a straight jacket out of blue tarp.

DW: And a kimono. And a sushi wrapper…

JF: The Blue Tarp project has been going on for three years. It’s always there. It’s something I revisit.

DW: I’ve been talking with other artists about the preciousness — or more precisely the “unpresciousness” of certain materials. It appears that you’ve embraced unpresciousness.

JF: Oh, yes...100 percent. One of the projects i didn’t do this summer in Japan but that I wanted to do was a blue tarp giveaway, in which my daughter and I would give tarps to people outside of a store.

All they would have to do get one is tell me what they might do with it. I was going to call it “Diaries of the Blue Tarp.”

DW: Blue tarps have a certain cultural significance now because of Hurricane Maria…

JF: Oh, yeah...and in general, the tarps are a great equalizer. It’s a material that everyone has access to...to cover a truck or a lawn mower. They’re readily available. And as a painter, I recognize the color potential in it as pretty synthetic. Fake. Chemical.

As you travel around the world, everyone has blue tarps. But the blue itself can be very different. You can get into levels of connoisseurship with blue tarps. There are high-end ones, low-end ones; and when they’re weathered, they’re very different. I’ve stretched them as canvases. I see it as a project that’s really about spontaneous solution to visual problems.

And what authentic human experience looks like.

The conversation with Joseph Fontinha will continue in next week’s BART Chat, in which we discuss Yves Klein, lazy viewership, and cheap plastic sleds. In the meantime, check out his video and performance work at josephfontinha.com.