The Arts Desk Interview with Joseph Popper
Drones, space capsules and set-building as fine art
Joseph Popper is probably, so far, the We Made It interviewee operating most squarely within the world of fine art: his work is weighty with concept and highly immersive, and he operates within the world of galleries and commissions. But he very certainly belongs in this section. His stage sets for “speculative scenarios and fictional experiences” are intricately crafted, meticulously constructed, based on the design principles and techniques of the set builders of 20th century cinema.
Recent work has included One Way Ticket (shown as part of The Baltic’s They Used To Call It The Moon), while new piece currently showing in Hove The Same Face is an installation featuring a 1:1 scale model of a drone command centre, along with meticulously simulated model “footage” of aerial scenes including Brighton’s The Grand Hotel as attacked by an IRA bomb in 1986. I spoke to him shortly after its installation to find out about his background.