Watch Jonathan Brilliant Repurpose Coffee Sticks & Cups

Watch Jonathan Brilliant Repurpose Coffee Sticks & Cups

Credit: Jonathan Brilliant

Jonathan Brilliant always thought he’d be a musician. After a failed attempt at music, he decided to pursue art and earned a Studio Art degree from the College of Charleston and Spatial Arts Masters degree from San Jose State University.

A resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, Brilliant began working with reclaimed, re-purposed or found materials. Since the 2006 inception of the “Goldsworthy of the coffee shop project,” his installations have been created using things found in a coffee shop–to-go cup lids and sleeves, coffee sticks, grounds, straws and the like. Using various techniques like weaving, welding, stacking, arranging, drumming, beating, rusting, drawing and photographing, he creates a piece customized to the site. Each installation contains 30,000-50,000 coffee sticks held together without adhesive and woven in place with tension and compression.

Credit: Jonathan Brilliant

According to his website:

“Central to all my work is an interest in patterning and mark-making fused with the use of pre- and post-consumer manufactured materials and the use of  rhythm and repetition to create installations, objects, and works on paper….My work for this series is assembled on site and creates a specific sculptural response to the time and space provided.”

Watch Brilliant create his installation art throughout the festival, and stop by his Artist Talk for a Q&A about his piece on Saturday, April 20 from 4 until 5 p.m. at ArtFields HUB at the ROB (245 South Church Street).

For more information on Brilliant, visit his Facebook and Twitter page or Flickr account.