Jonah Jacobs & Douglas Becht
- Published:
Artist and Amalgamation co-curator Douglas Becht sits down with fellow exhibitor Jonah Jacobs to talk about how he makes his work. Jonah's path to art is an unusual one: from the Army to a philosophy degree to years of writing, where he started saving the sentences he loved but couldn't use, printing them out, and distressing them with iodine, salt, and tea water. That habit grew into collage, then assemblage, then the layered cardboard sculptures he makes today, built through "creative destruction" and a steady stream of experiments, including one with hydrochloric acid that didn't go as planned. Jonah walks through Colony, the installation at the heart of the show, and a new piece made with his late parents' pill bottles and the first lighting experiments in his work. He also talks about learning to let go of perfectionism when installing a show, and what he's planning for his solo exhibition next September at Waterloo Arts.