Josh Short's art explores contemporary myth, ritual, and invention within the American cultural landscape. The American warrior myth, muscle cars, consumer appliances, punk rock and biker culture are common themes found in my participatory installations and performance-based sculpture. Josh also attempts to remove the role of spectator and blur the line between audience and artwork.

This method echoes the all-American spectacle of pro-wrestling-The wrestlers, the ring, and the audience, have a shared role in the performance, creating an exaggerated expression of our inner desires, beliefs, and emotions. Josh's performance-based artworks hope to embody a rebel spirit that can provoke conversations around sub-cultures that historically, "buck the system", "stick it to the man",

or challenge the cultural landscape that governs our everyday experience. His art champions waste, escapism, the apocalypse and forms of regional innovation bred by desperation as the thread from which the American cultural quilt is sewn. The Ojai Art Festival has invited Josh to create an on-site installation during our opening weekend November 8 - 10 next to the Porch Gallery at 310 Matilija St.