Waiting Without Waiting
Art Zine, Josh Brien, 10 pgs,joshuabrien.com
Josh Brien’s work is produced on a small scale, and difficult to find even if you’re looking for it. Waiting without Waiting is a 10-panel “zine,” but is essentially a double-sided risograph print, folded four times accordion-style. The paper is superb (maintaining the deckled edges is a nice touch) and the four-colour printing scheme is bold in a way only risographs can be: primary blue for outlines with fluorescent pink-green-yellow to fill the otherwise white negative space that dominates these images.
Waiting Without Waiting recycles motifs from Brien’s recent work, namely, his January exhibition, the waiting is the doing of the day, which was presented at Open Studio as part of the Don Phillips Scholarship. The justification for that show might be stretched to introduce this work, reading, “In an uncertain world, Josh feels that the best course of action can be to just sit and wait, and to be okay not knowing.”
His work here — baseballs, house-plants, misshapen stones and disembodied photos of a hairless white man — all feels abstract, geometric, indoor. Brien’s work quietly walks along the uncanny valley, encouraging readers to sit and wait themselves for the imagery, the theory, and the materials of the zine to open — or not open— themselves up.
While perhaps not technically a zine to some, Brien’s prints are fun and worth seeking out if you can.