Biography
Joshua Nierodzinski (b. 1982, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA) is an American visual artist and co-founder of HEKLER. His studio practice investigates the spaces between history and allegory through a fusion of painting, multispectral photography, and blockchain technology.
Nierodzinski earned his BFA in Painting and Art History from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and his MFA from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with solo presentations in the U.S. and Mexico City. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and an AIM Bronx Museum Fellowship.
Artist Statement
I was 7 years old when I learned that Christopher Columbus did not, in fact, discover America. Turns out the History channel was more honest than my history teacher. It was a watershed moment that taught me to always question the official narrative and look below the surface for a more complete truth.
Fast forward to 2014 as a graduate student, I encountered the research paper, Forensics and Microscopy in Authenticating Works of Art, by Peter Paul Biro. Biro was the first forensic art analyst to use human contact prints to successfully authenticate the work of J.M.W. Turner using the artist’s fingerprints. This pioneering work merged the fields of art, forensic science, and historical study. It inspired me to examine my own creative process and launched an obsession to materialize the layered nature of history. With the help of the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, I developed a way to combine oil painting with multi-spectral photographic techniques such as X-rays, infrared, and ultraviolet light that are used by conservators to authenticate artwork.
My painting process uses traditional oil paint and materials such as lead and phosphor powder that react in unique ways to invisible wavelengths of light. Each layer is an image that is covered by the subsequent layers. The buried images are later retrieved with multi-spectral photography. I sequence the photographs into a short video that gives access to the hidden layers and serves as a Certificate of Authenticity*. Working this way transforms the painted layers into frames that suggest narrative relationships like a flashback or a jump cut. of imaginative viewing can be compared to the reconstruction of events based on visual evidence during a legal trial where the goal is to present facts and offer interpretations.
*Note on Authentication and Provenance
The Video Certificate of Authenticity (VCOA) is minted as a smart legal contract that details the terms of ownership. The VCOA can be accessed by scanning a Near-Field Communicator (NFC) transmitter on the back of the painting with a smart phone. The physical painting and VCOA are separate but interdependent assets that move across aesthetic, financial, and legal boundaries.
