A Construction of Human Experiences

Day by day we can get caught up with the hype of everything and forget about the core of what already exists. For Joe Netta’s recent work, he works with the idea of relationships, whether it would be of objects to one another, the space between the objects and what that would mean, and preconceived expectations that people have when they encounter certain situations and how they relate to these objects and space. His work is constructed raw and exposed, using towels, a small table and an exposed radio. With that he shows how, by cutting out the excess it can lead people to see the real thing. It’s shown in a very broad way intentionally, to put the viewer to work into interpreting the piece in his or her own way.

Especially in the age in digital, we expect to have things done faster and instantly, but the use of the sound from the radio in Netta’s work is intended for the viewer to be interested, but also to wait for a different sound outside of the white noise. The sound is set on a one channel that is prevented from us being able to change it. Will we hear a different sound that would break away from the white noise? Maybe, maybe not, it’s about the expectation of it. The simplicity of the towels directs the viewer to seeing them figuratively, what do they represent? Absorption, and they are used close to the body, so what could that imply? Could that personify that particular object? Is that how we relate and understand what we encounter, by personifying it? For Netta, the forms are meant to function as stand-ins for people.

These two towels that are set on the floor touching at the corners show a contact between the two. At that point, it is raised up towards the radio, or is it going up towards the space that occupies the radio waves? The radio itself is a communication device that we depend on to hear reception that is transmitted through radio waves. Radio signals typically come from the closest place that is transmitting the sound. If there is no signal, then how far do we have to physically travel in order to hear a recognizable sound? Or do we wait?

What is very interesting about this piece is how it’s about expectations and figurative relationships. Netta explores an idea about human experience and interaction that he himself also questions about.