Artist Statement
Bathing has become a private ritual in everyday life. The day’s only moment for reflection. In this solitary space, cleansing the body can flood us with cathartic feelings of pain, sorrow and guilt. The shower can be a place of prayer or a space for reckoning with our actions or inactions. Singing, humor and even a dance step are a common trope.
Bath waters are symbolic of birth. We feel connection being bathed by another. We learn the sensation of floating, then its memory, and are playful holding our breath underwater. We test the temperature of the environment and use tools to scrub where our arms can’t reach.
Across our lifespan, water’s restorative power lessens sensory overload and gives renewal.
In the juxtaposition of the forty-five bathing characters, this project seeks to tell the stories of our lives. Each vignette, housed in the continuous line of the tub, flows like water into the next, leaving only the residue of what was washed away.
Josh Blankfield
Josh Blankfield grew up in Los Angeles and studied film at Oberlin College, class of 2018. He is interested in the extent to which visual language can be used to tell stories. Currently based in New York, he is a graphic designer for Supersmile®, and works freelance production design and art direction including Emily Conn’s debut feature CRSHD, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2019..
Process
