BRADLEY MARSHALL (Johnson City TN, USA)
Biography:
Bradley Marshall (b. 1988) is an artist working in photography and video. Originally from Nashville, TN, he is a 2018 MFA candidate at East Tennessee State University. He has held solo exhibitions at Fort Houston Gallery and Tipton Gallery, as well as numerous group exhibitions, including the Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art and 121 Gallery, among others. He currently works and lives in Johnson City, TN.
Artist Statement:
“Hearing Through Walls” examines domesticity, lost youth, and American masculinity. The work takes the form of a fragmented and subjective narrative, where an intentionally flawed male viewpoint is constructed and developed. Working with and against the tropes and stereotypes of the male coming of age narrative, I attempt to better represent my own conflicted feelings within these themes as I acknowledge my own inclusion within this tumultuous narrative.
The places in this work are a mix of deeply personal and unfamiliar. The people are represented by childhood friends and mere acquaintances and are often photographed together. This blending of the old and new is an attempt to reconcile the retracing of my autobiography and a startling confrontation with the problems of a contemporary male coming of age.
Practice Statement: How does photographing on film (or using your material photographic process of predilection) inform your artistic practice?
Film is tactile. Film teaches us. It shows us our mistakes and forces us to reconcile with them, as we will each one into existence. The lack of immediate gratification found on a digital camera teaches us discipline and precision. Color negative film is able to describe light in a much more mysterious manner…and I’m still not sure why I like that so much. It has nothing to do with nostalgia, as I find that old film aesthetic uninteresting…instead I simply believe in the process-based application of the film negative with its technical and conceptual benefits.
