Artists

Helen Johnson: Artist Statement 2006

I am interested in art as a social tool, a means of inciting discussion by introducing new ways of understanding or configuring the world and our relationship to it. My practice is not one of absolutes or of ‘grand concept'. Producing artwork is, for me, a means of raising questions. The artworks I produce commonly bring together a multiplicity of ideas, to embody something of the complexity which in a late-capitalist society constitutes ‘the everyday'. It is important for the individual to consider that ‘something' as flexible and open; something which they, as a member of a society, can contribute to and inform, despite what the structure of a capitalist democracy might suggest.

An important aspect of my practice lies in its capacity as a vehicle for asking how personal identities and ideologies can take form amidst such a plethora of symbols, signifiers and codes as we live amongst. I often work on a one-to-one scale, producing tableaus or environments which enfold the audience. By assembling and visually deconstructing ideological questions, my intention is to encourage the viewer to reflect upon their own structures of belief, without being instructive or didactic. A point of fascination is the slippage between ideological constructs and everyday existence - examining the sites where the two intersect and where they fall away from one another. I am interested in the ways an individual might apprehend, contribute to and, if desired, subvert the structures in place around them.

Downloads

Helen Johnson CV (PDF)

JOHNSON_Do not go gentle into that goodnight 2007_Artist Statement (PDF)

JOHNSON_Do not go gentle into that goodnight 2007_Catalogue Text by Nick Heron (PDF)